ASX-listed explorer Great Southern Mining has received more high-grade gold sniffs from a new round of drilling at its second-string Mon Ami gold project near Laverton in WA. The new results follow on from its encouraging high-grade drill hits at the project a couple of years ago. Notable intersections from the latest drilling were 11m grading 7.9 grams per tonne gold from 26m including 4m at 15.9 g/t, and 4m at 12.4 g/t from 80m.
Importantly, the Perth-based company continues to encounter high-grade gold mineralisation at relatively shallow depths.
Great Southern recently carried out a 20-hole RC drill program totalling 2,763m to follow up its previous, maiden 40-hole RC campaign comprising 5,821m.
The earlier campaign culminated in an initial resource estimate being released for Mon Ami in late 2018 of 1.1 million tonnes going 1.7 g/t for 59,000 ounces of contained gold.
The 2020 program was designed to test the mineralised north-north-east striking regional shear zone, including areas outside or on the edge of the current southern extent of the resource area and areas where existing historic workings are situated along the shear.
Better intercepts from the new drilling were 11m at 7.9 g/t gold from 26m including 4m at 15.9 g/t, and 4m at 12.4 g/t from 80m. Best results from the earlier RC program were 2m at 32.8 g/t gold from 74m, 8m at 4.2 g/t from 136m, 2m at 27.6 g/t from 173m and 4m at 10.1 g/t from 31m.
According to the company, the latest intersections indicate high-grade gold is localised within quartz veining at the lithological contact of a sedimentary sequence and a basalt unit, within the regional shear zone.
Great Southern Executive Chairman, John Terpu said: “The latest round of drilling at Mon Ami has highlighted the significant potential of this project to grow both in terms of grade and ounces. It just needs more drilling. The shear zone is the target area that keeps on producing significant intersections. What is more compelling is that we now are seeing the high-grade mineralisation close to surface.”
“This is a significant development for the project as it has highlighted that there is potential to raise the grade profile if we can continue to discover these high-grade quartz veins. With every hole we are gaining a better understanding of the mineralisation system and now believe there may be several high-grade splays associated with the shear zone.”
The recent assay results will be incorporated into the resource model and planning of the next phase of drilling at Mon Ami is already underway.
Great Southern says Mon Ami remains open along strike and at depth with little drilling done outside the existing resource area.
The project area sits within the Laverton greenstone belt about 14km north-east of the Granny Smith mine and 12km south-east of Laverton, a region well-endowed with multimillion-ounce and 1Moz-plus gold deposits.
Mon Ami is about 80km south of Great Southern’s promising flagship Cox’s Find gold project, which lies along strike and about 12km from Regis Resources’ Garden Well open-pit gold mine.
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By Matt Birney
