There’s a lot of upside – a few decent drillholes and we’ll be off to the races. So that’s where the opportunity is for the company and investors really. We can really leverage off some good drill results and increase the value of the company by 5 or 10 times with what we have already and what we’re planning.”Lodestar has 1,334km-square of underexplored tenure over the Earaheedy Basin after recent exploration licence acquisitions and applications.
The MD says it is an emerging metallogenic terrane with tier-one base metals potential.As Turner explains, Lodestar’s priority focus is advancing the 100% owned Earaheedy Base Metal Project, which has established main targets ready for drilling in June 2023. Lodestar has completed a reassessment of the underexplored Earaheedy Province following Rumble Resource’s (ASX:RTR) major zinc-lead and polymetallic discoveries.Rumble on 19 April announced a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 94Mt @ 3.1% Zn+Pb and 4.1g/t Ag.
The MD notes Lodestar now has about 80km strike length of the targeted Yelma-Frere unconformity within its tenements.At Earaheedy, Lodestar’s maiden drilling program includes aircore drilling comprising some 100 holes for 5,000m and will test 7 targets. These targets were defined by both electromagnetic (EM) anomalies and soil geochemistry anomalies using ultrafine (UFF+) multi-element assaying methods developed by the CSIRO, which also analysed and interpreted the assay data.
“IN ADDITION WE HAVE MORE THAN 80KM OF STRIKE TARGETING THE YELMA-FRERE UNCONFORMITY WITHIN OUR TENEMENTS WHICH IS MORE PROSPECTIVE FOR ZINC-LEAD-SILVER MINERALISATION…”
The MD notes: “We’re going to first test the 7 best copper-gold targets. In addition we have more than 80 kilometres of strike targeting the Yelma-Frere unconformity within our tenements which is more prospective for zinc-lead-silver mineralisation and this has yet to be effectively tested with soil geochemistry so that will also be a short term focus.”In addition to Earaheedy, Lodestar has exposure to the Kangaroo Hills JV with Future Battery Minerals (ASX:FBM), which provides significant exposure to a new lithium discovery.Future Battery Minerals retains an 80% equity stake in the JV while Lodestar has 20%.Turner adds: “This is the other main focus for us, the Kangaroo Hills lithium discovery, in which we have 20% of the joint venture with Future Battery Minerals. That’s not taking up too much of our money, but that’s really exciting because that has great potential to be an economic deposit in the short-term. With only several rounds of drilling we’ve already shown that what’s really encouraging, besides being mineralised from surface, is we’re getting really good widths and the mineralisation is shallowly dipping. So, you’ve got a relatively low waste to ore stripping ratio, which means you can go deeper than if it was a sub-vertical body say 5 metres wide, then you pretty soon get to the point where you’re moving too much waste to mine it economically.”Turner says it’s “not quite a free kick” as Lodestar is contributing but having a JV with a solid partner with an emerging significant asset is an upside for the company.
In late April, Future Battery Minerals and Lodestar announced that the phase two reverse circulation (RC) drilling program has partially delineated a highly prospective interpreted Lithium–Caesium–Tantalum (LCT) Pegmatite unit at the Kangaroo Hills Lithium Project (KHLP) in Western Australia.The phase one exploration drilling discovered the outstanding result of a spodumene bearing pegmatite grading 29m @ 1.36% Li2O from 38m within drillhole KHRC011, which at completion was open to the east, north and south. Phase two has now intercepted what is interpreted to be the same host pegmatite in numerous drillholes which were designed to step out from KHRC011 to delineate the strike length and width of this significant intercept.
Turner says while its portfolio is exciting, the company is backed by a strong and experienced management and exploration team, including Exploration Manager Coraline Blaud. She is geologist with more than 10 years’ experience in the junior mining sector working across multiple commodities including base metals, precious metals, lithium, and potash in Western Australia, Europe, and Africa.
LSR Price at posting:
0.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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