The South African Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) has granted the renewal applications for two significant prospecting rights forming part of Aim-listed Lexington Gold’s Kroonstad gold project, in the Free State, following the successful conclusion of a longstanding appeals process.

This followed previous refusals that pre-dated Lexington’s acquisition of White Rivers Exploration (WRE) in September 2023 and that had been disclosed previously by the company.

Each renewal has been granted for a period of three years from September 28, subject to execution of the relevant deeds of renewal.

About 26 275 ha in total of Kroonstad tenure have been secured.

The successful appeals outcome represents a very important milestone for Lexington, serving to secure about 26 275 ha of tenure at Kroonstad at a time when the company is materially advancing its technical evaluation of the project and progressing work towards the definition of a Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (Jorc-) compliant exploration target further to the recently expanded historical dataset which has grown by a factor of nine times, it points out.

Independent geological consultancy Shango Solutions is progressing a structured programme aimed at upgrading an appropriate portion of Kroonstad’s existing independent non-code-compliant estimate of 6.06-million to 62.41-million ounces of gold at grades ranging from 4.96 g/t to 11.54 g/t gold, towards a Jorc-compliant exploration target.

As announced last month, 64 primary drillholes and 73 deflections have now been catalogued, compared with only 12 primary drillholes and three deflections in the dataset used for the previous independent non-code-compliant grade-tonnage estimate.

Kimberley Reef sampling data has been identified in 22 primary drillholes and 55 deflections.

“This represents an excellent outcome for Lexington. We have successfully resolved two longstanding regulatory matters inherited with the WRE acquisition and, in doing so, have secured approximately 26 275 ha of important tenure at Kroonstad,” says chairperson Ed Nealon.

“The timing is particularly apposite. Shango’s work has materially expanded the historical drilling database and we are advancing towards a Jorc-compliant exploration target in the fourth quarter of this year.

“Securing these renewed rights provides us with a stronger and much larger platform from which to advance what we believe is a highly important and significant gold opportunity within the Witwatersrand basin,” he adds.

CEO Mark Greenwood, meanwhile, informs that the company intends to work with the DMPR to investigate the possibility of merging the three licences to create operational and administrative efficiencies and also the possible extension of their eventual maturity.