ASX-listed gold explorer, Great Southern Mining, has moved to tie up more ground adjacent to its Cox’s Find gold project about 65km north of Laverton in WA, applying for 50sqkm of new tenements along structural trends that host gold deposits within the Duketon greenstone belt.
Cox’s Find is located along strike about 12km from Regis Resources’ Garden Well open pit gold mine where Great Southern has been looking to increase its footprint in and around prospective structural trends in the area that may present as solid drill targets.
According to the Perth-based gold hopeful, the tenure it has applied for has been subject to minimal exploration over the past decade and is regarded as highly prospective, within 20km of both the Garden Well and Rosemont mining operations. It contains a number of historical workings and walk-up drill targets and the company is currently analysing historical data from the area.
Great Southern Chief Operating Officer, Mark Major said: “These applications are a major step forward for the company’s gold strategy in the Duketon belt. There are multimillion-ounce deposits such as Garden Well only 12km away, with Rosemount a mere 20km from Cox’s Find.
“With the potential for such a significant increase in land holding, underpinned by the high-grade Cox’s Find project, Great Southern is well placed and well-funded to unlock further potential in the project.”
Cox’s Find was mined by Western Mining Corporation between 1937 and 1942 for production of about 77,000oz of gold at an impressive reported head grade of 21.94g/t from a vein stope operation.
The deposit is covered by three mining leases that cover the historical open pit and on-site surface ores. According to Great Southern, the high-grade mineralisation extends to surface where it is exposed in an old shallow open pit, some 15m deep.
The company says it may look to extend the pit to reach a supergene zone of highly enriched gold and further develop the mineralisation left in and around the underground workings.
Great Southern also kicked off a new RC drilling program this month at its Mon Ami gold project further south of Cox’s Find and also near Laverton. That program is looking to follow up on previous high-grade hits.
An initial resource of 1.1 million tonnes going 1.7 grams per tonne gold for 59,000 ounces of contained gold was estimated for Mon Ami a couple of years ago.
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By Matt Birney
