The hole, designed to follow-up to significant broad zones of gold mineralisation in earlier reconnaissance aircore drilling, delivered the partners 12.9m at 33.1 grams per tonne gold from 66.4m, including a peak 0.5m at 831gpt.
There were three thin zones at depth, including 1m at 2.5gpt from 153m.
There could be additional mineralisation, however core loss was noted while drilling through sections of oxidised and broken quartz breccia.
Lawry sits within the lightly explored Reynolds structure, which is 250m east of the Tomorrow trend that has been the focus of the bulk of prior work within the wider Tandarra project.
Catalyst technical director Bruce Kay said the initial assay provided proof there were now three parallel zones of high-grades gold within the project with similarities to the historic Bendigo gold field which produced 22 million ounces of gold.
Tandarra sits along the Whitelaw Corridor that is considered to be a major structural control of gold mineralisation north of Bendigo.
The project is 40km north of Bendigo but has historically seen little interest from explorers due to the presence of the Murray Basin cover.
Catalyst has positions along 75km of the Whitelaw and Tandarra faults, and essentially controls the entire trend.
Further work at Lawry will have to wait until the spring, as the grazing paddocks will be too wet for any infill drilling over winter.
In the interim, the pair has ordered BLEG (bulk leach extractable gold) re-assays of the pulps with the aim of confirming the results and evening out the nugget effect of the coarse gold.
Attesting to the prospectivity of the area, assays at the nearby Macnaughtan prospect delivered up to 0.3m at 412gpt last year, while earlier this month Catalyst reported a peak 1m at 150gpt at Boyd’s Dam within its 50/50 Four Eagles joint venture further to the north with Hancock Prospecting.
The partners are developing a maiden resource at Four Eagles that could support an exploration decline.
High-grade gold, including 3m at 18.2gpt, was also reported this month from reconnaissance aircore drilling within the pair’s 700sq.km Boort project that is even further to the north, and has never been explored.
