ASX-listed Great Southern Mining has extended the strike length at its Cox’s Find gold project near Laverton in WA by 1km to the north. The best result from the recent RC drilling at two key target areas returned 8m at 1.1 g/t gold from 91m, including 2m at 3.2 g/t gold.
Other notable hits were 6m at 1.0 g/t gold from 114m, including 2m at 1.7 g/t gold and 13m at 0.7 g/t gold from a relatively shallow 34m, including 1m at 1.7 g/t gold.
Importantly, the newly identified mineral zones remain open both at depth and along strike.
Great Southern said its first pass RC drill program had successfully identified fresh gold mineralisation at two key prospects along-strike to the north of the historical Cox’s Find deposit with Target Two sitting 400m north and Target three located a further 600m to the north.
The company said the two targets are just the first of several prospects dotted along strike that are set to be drilled in the near term in accordance with the company’s strategy of drilling below old RAB holes drilled by previous explorers.
Great Southern Chief Executive Officer, Sean Gregory said:
“These results represent a significant success for GSN. They demonstrate that gold mineralisation is not constrained to the Cox’s Find deposit and is evidenced for at least a further 1 kilometre along strike. They also show that historical RAB drilling in these northern areas by previous owners stopped short of genuine target depth in multiple zones. In short, the results substantially increase the overall prospectivity of the target corridor to the north of Cox’s Find.”
“It is also important to note that Targets 2 and 3 are only the first two of several high-priority regional targets set to be drilled. GSN intends to aggressively follow-up this success, and the other high-priority structural target zones, with an intensive drilling program in the short term.”
Importantly for the Perth-based company, the latest results demonstrate the structural prospectivity of the northern corridor, including the apparent ineffectiveness of historic RAB drilling in these areas. The company’s recent success seems to confirm that historical explorers simply did not drill deep enough and missed the broad zone of quartz veining that Great Southern has latched on to.
Management said the Cox’s Find project area is likely to increase again as the company has an additional 50 square kilometres under application, immediately adjacent to Cox’s Find.
The new ground is highly prospective with known mineralised corridors in the area hosting nearby million-ounce deposits interpreted to strike right through it.
The new applications follow the granting earlier this month of tenement number E38/3476, which lies immediately to the north of the successful drilling at Target 3.
The latest news comes on the back of Great Southern’s bonanza, 1.1m long drill intersection produced last month from diamond drilling grading a whopping 404.0 grams per tonne gold, or an eye-watering 13 ounces to the tonne from 164.6m downhole at the main lode at Cox’s Find.
The concept of taking old historic gold projects that were thought to be mined out at the time and then applying modern, near-mine exploration techniques to them has been heralding a new era of gold finds and Great Southern looks to be doing just that at Cox’s Find.
Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
