Monday 1 May 2026
Thirteen diamond drill holes into virgin ground at New Waverley have returned the kind of result that reframes a project from early-stage target to genuine discovery candidate. Lachlan Star Limited (ASX: LSA) reported visible gold and stacked high-grade intercepts from shallow depth in their maiden program, 16km northeast of Norseman in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields.
The result is significant because the ground had never been drilled below historical shallow open-cut pits mined in 1988. Every hole that returned mineralisation is testing a system whose boundaries remain undefined.
The result in context
The headline intercept came from NWDD006: 6.15m at 8.6 g/t Au from 46.9m, including 2.9m at 17.7 g/t Au from 50.15m, with visible gold observed in core. Three additional holes returned meaningful grades across widths that confirm a mineralised corridor rather than an isolated occurrence.
NWDD004 returned 4.6m at 4.24 g/t Au from 18.5m, including a high-grade core of 0.9m at 21.5 g/t Au. NWDD002 intersected 6.2m at 1.32 g/t Au from 16.3m, with 0.7m at 8.83 g/t Au within that interval. NWDD003 added 7m at 1.55 g/t Au, demonstrating lateral continuity of the mineralised structure.
The consistent grades across multiple holes at shallow depth, combined with the presence of visible gold, elevate this from a geological curiosity to a result that warrants aggressive follow-up.
The geology
New Waverley's mineralisation sits within laminated quartz reefs hosted by NNE-trending shear zones in the Woolyeenyer Formation. This is a classic "Norseman-style" gold system, the same structural and lithological architecture that hosts multi-million-ounce resources at Pantoro Gold's nearby Norseman operations.
The mineralised shear corridor identified by Lachlan Star extends over 400m with potential strike length exceeding 800m. High-grade shoots display a northwest plunge geometry consistent with the district's known ore controls, a structural signature that experienced geologists in the Norseman district will recognise as favourable for depth continuity.
Stacked quartz vein-hosted mineralisation at shallow depth, with the system open down-dip, down-plunge, along strike, and at depth, presents a geometry that has the potential to grow substantially with targeted drilling.
Project trajectory
Lachlan Star holds 90% of the approximately 40km² tenement package at New Waverley. The maiden diamond drilling program of 13 holes for 1,031.4m was designed as a proof-of-concept test of the main shear zone beneath the historical Waverley and Trial Pits.
With the proof of concept established, the company has planned 2,400m of follow-up RC drilling for June 2026. This program will test strike extensions and infill the existing intercepts, building toward a first-pass geological model of the system's scale and geometry.
The proximity to Pantoro Gold's established Norseman operations provides a district-scale infrastructure context. New Waverley is positioned within a proven gold endowment, and the geological similarities between the two projects give the follow-up drilling added strategic weight.
What this means for the district
A maiden program returning visible gold and multi-gram intercepts from a structural setting with demonstrated district pedigree changes the conversation around this tenement package. The Eastern Goldfields remain one of Australia's most productive gold provinces, and results like this remind the market that significant discovery potential persists in underexplored structural corridors.
For Norwest Exploration and Mining Services, programs like New Waverley represent the sharp end of what we do: deploying experienced core loggers and structural geologists into maiden and follow-up drilling programs where the quality of geological interpretation from the first hole shapes every subsequent decision. We will be watching these developments closely.