Lodestar Minerals has received all assays from a 12,417-metre, 106-hole RC drilling program at Ned’s Creek, supporting its existing exploration target across three gold prospects. A maiden Mineral Resource Estimate is now expected in the second half of October, although reported widths remain subject to geological interpretation and true-width confirmation.
- All assays received from 12,417m of RC drilling across three prospects
- Exploration Target remains 250,000-300,000 ounces at 1.0-1.7g/t gold
- High-grade results include 7m at 4.69g/t gold and 11m at 2.96g/t gold
- Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate targeted for October 2026
- Mining Lease application studies remain scheduled for early 2027
Assay programme clears the way for Ned’s Creek resource model
Lodestar Minerals Limited (ASX:LSR) has cleared the main data hurdle ahead of its maiden resource estimate at the Ned’s Creek Gold Project in Western Australia, with all assays now returned from a 12,417-metre reverse-circulation drilling campaign. The 106-hole programme covered Gidgee Flat, Contessa and Central Park, and the company says geological modelling is nearing completion for an estimate expected in the second half of October 2026.
The results broadly support the exploration target published in December 2025: 250,000 to 300,000 ounces of gold contained within 5 million to 7 million tonnes grading 1.0 to 1.7 grams per tonne. That figure remains a conceptual Exploration Target, not a Mineral Resource, but Lodestar says the current project is tracking within the target range while it also plans to test for mineralisation beyond it.
High-grade zones remain open at Gidgee Flat and Central Park
Among the latest Gidgee Flat results, hole LNRC153 returned 7 metres at 4.69g/t gold from 214 metres, including 2 metres at 15.29g/t. LNRC156 delivered 11 metres at 1.76g/t from 111 metres, including 5 metres at 3.53g/t, while shallow hole LNRC132 produced 11 metres at 2.33g/t from 20 metres.
Central Park supplied a different kind of encouragement, with several broad oxide and transitional intercepts containing sharper high-grade intervals. Results included 26 metres at 1.57g/t from 51 metres in LNRC210, including 3 metres at 5.08g/t, and 11 metres at 2.96g/t from 36 metres in LNRC196, including 3 metres at 8.78g/t. Lodestar says mineralisation remains open along strike and at depth across the three deposits.
The resampling work also supplied a useful corrective to the apparent neatness of composite assays. Previously broad zones were sometimes separated into narrower mineralised intervals when 1-metre samples were tested. In LNRC159, for example, two wide oxide zones were confirmed but split by waste, while the shallow zone returned lower width and grade than the original composite suggested. The distinction matters because the resource model must capture not only the headline grades, but how continuously and geometrically the gold occurs.
October resource estimate sits ahead of permitting studies
Lodestar is conducting environmental, heritage, metallurgical, geotechnical and hydrogeological studies alongside the resource work. The company says those studies remain on schedule to support an application for a Mining Lease in early calendar 2027. Ned’s Creek is located about 40 kilometres east of Catalyst Metals’ Plutonic Gold Mine and plant, and within trucking distance of Westgold’s Blue Bird plant near Meekatharra, according to the announcement.
The immediate test is therefore less about another isolated spectacular intercept than about what survives the modelling process. Lodestar cautions that several reported intersections are down-hole or apparent thicknesses, with true widths potentially narrower, and says the sampling bias has not yet been quantified. The October estimate will need to show how the grades, widths and open extensions translate into classified ounces before the project can move from a promising drilling story towards a development case.
Bottom Line?
October’s maiden resource estimate is the next decisive checkpoint: the key question is how much of the exploration target converts into classified ounces after true widths, continuity and geology are applied.
Questions in the middle?
- How many ounces and what resource classifications will the October estimate deliver against the 250,000-300,000 ounce Exploration Target?
- How materially will true-width interpretation reduce the reported apparent thicknesses, particularly at Central Park?
- Will metallurgical, environmental and permitting studies support a practical development pathway near existing processing infrastructure?