This week, the company completed the acquisition of 90% of the high-grade New Waverley gold project in Western Australia.

Lachlan Star also secured Tony Kiernan as its new non-executive chairman.

Kiernan is best-known for chairing companies at the top end of town, including PLS and Saracen Mineral Holdings. He recently stepped down as chairman of ASX 100 gold producer Genesis Minerals but remains a director.

Lachlan Star chief executive Andrew Tyrell said Kiernan’s appointment came about when Goyder, a 10.8% shareholder, reached out to his network.

“I met with Tony two weeks ago now, had a good conversation with him about who I was and what we’ve been trying to achieve,” he said.

“Through that interaction, he was comfortable with coming back down this end of the market, which is obviously junior, in which he hasn’t been in for quite a while, and was happy to support it and provide a bit of that corporate support, because we recognise we’re exploration geologists.

“Myself and Alan [Hawkins], my exploration manager, we’re very good at finding things, drilling out things, but really, to transition into that next stage, we needed someone with a stronger background behind them.”

At the same time, Lachlan Star also appointed Ramelius Resources chief development officer Alan Thom as a non-executive director.

“Again, I met with him a few weeks ago, went through the same sort of conversations I had with Tony, trying to understand his background and his expertise and how it could really supplement us,” Tyrell said.

“And he feels a gap that we had, particularly at the board level, was around growth and development.”

Yesterday, Lachlan Star announced it had secured A$7.47 million in commitments from existing and new sophisticated and professional investors via a share placement at an issue price of A12c per share, including a A$268,000 commitment from directors.

“We actually had a lot of strong interest in the capital raise, a lot more than I’d actually expected, especially considering the current climate with what’s going on overseas,” Tyrell said. 

“Our cash balance now will be quite robust, and the idea behind that is, is that gives us that much-needed runway to not just go from program to program but actually plan out what could be a systematic drill-out of New Waverley.”

A drill rig mobilised to New Waverley this week.

“That would be the start of what could be a multi-phase program on the project through which we aim to demonstrate that it’s got the grades, the size, the potential, and then start to plan and drill out around that over the coming 6-12 months,” Tyrell said.

New Waverley

New Waverley, near Norseman, has been owned by private prospectors for the past 30 years.

“We recognised New Waverley as what we call a unicorn – those rare opportunities that you find out there that haven’t been looked at for the better part of four decades,” Tyrell said.

Historical intersections at New Waverley include 4.1m at 12.53 grams per tonne gold from 59.7m, including 0.65m at 77.3g/t gold; 4m at 13.83g/t gold from 16m, including 1m at 53g/t gold; 2m at 10.34g/t gold from 24m; 8m at 2.71g/t gold from 18m, including 1m at 20.05g/t gold; and 8m at 2.13g/t gold from 15m, including 2m at 7.75g/t gold.

Rock chips collected by Lachlan Star have returned up to 56g/t gold.

The 250sqkm project also includes two mining leases.

“We were a greenfields explorer, but New Waverley represents a bit more of a brownfields-type project, where you could quite rapidly convert it into a development opportunity,” Tyrell said.

“The great thing about this project is it’s shallow … so in terms of the drilling required, it doesn’t take a lot of holes to then firm up what could be a potential resource within that top 50-100m.”

Lachlan Star is targeting an initial resource by early next year.

The project is just 15km from Pantoro Gold’s Norseman mill and 72km from Westgold Resources’ Higginsville plant.

While Lachlan Star will aim to find a large deposit, New Waverley’s location gives the company the flexibility to consider toll treatment options.

“It’s so close to existing other deposits and infrastructure around us,” Tyrell said.

“Nothing’s a shoo-in and there are no guarantees in this business – we know that – but when you compare it to other projects, it’s as good as you can get for a potential brownfields project.

“I’m pretty excited, and we’ve been trying the last couple of years to really get this company up and going. 

“In Tim’s own words, it’s time to take the training wheels off, so now, it’s an opportunity for the company to really demonstrate what we do have.”