Gold and nickel explorer Great Southern Mining is bringing the drill back to its wholly-owned Duketon gold project to drill a 5000 metre RC program on the Southern Star orebody, where previous drilling yielded stunning results up to 56 grams per tonne gold.
The company is looking to focus on a southern extension of a look-alike magnetic high feature similar to the existing orebody.
Located 45 kilometres north of Laverton in WA, the successful 2021 RC program extended Southern Star’s known mineralisation to more than 700m in strike.
Results to date include 17m at 7.0 grams per tonne gold from 111m including 2m going 56.7 g/t gold; 59m grading 2.1 g/t gold including 9m running 4.5 g/t gold and 16m giving up 3.2 g/t gold from 53m; and 7m going 13.9 g/t gold including 1m grading 91.7g/t gold from 123m.
The 2021 campaign was followed by a targeted two-hole diamond drilling program late last year, helping tighten the design of the latest holes.
Great Southern added an extensive soil-testing program was underway to refine the mineralised corridor further along strike.
Management says it is important to note the area to the north and south of the known Southern Star mineralisation footprint has seen little to no historical exploration.
Once the mineralised corridor is defined by geochemistry, further RC drilling will be planned to target fresh rock along strike from the bulk of the Southern Star gold mineralisation.
Great Southern Mining Executive Chairman, John Terpu said: “The recent exploration success has confirmed Southern Star has all the hallmarks of a large, mineralised gold system with 700m strike of mineralisation defined to date, open in all directions and at depth. The objectives of this next program are to explore extensions of the gold system, with the current geological evidence suggesting the southern corridor to be highly prospective.”
Great Southern Mining is also on the hunt for nickel, further investigating the size and extent of two bedrock conductors with a follow-up fixed-loop electromagnetic survey underway at its East Laverton project in Western Australia.
The conductors modelled from the recent moving-loop electromagnetic, or survey are considered highly prospective for massive nickel sulphide mineralisation.
One identified anomaly spans a massive 2km by 1km and lines up with the edge of a regional gravity anomaly that Great Southern says provides a “compelling drill target”.
Also compelling is the question as to whether Great Southern Mining can repeat the high-grade gold hits at the Southern Star orebody from earlier exploration efforts. If it can things may get interesting just north of Laverton.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
