Great Southern kicks off gold exploration near Laverton

Just a week after reporting its maiden mineral resource of 59,000 ounces of gold at its Mon Ami gold play near Laverton in WA, Great Southern Mining says it is about to conduct the first stage of exploration at its Mt Weld project, located only 12km to the southeast.

The Mt Weld project consists of three under-explored exploration licences covering 51 square kilometres that are considered prospective for gold and rare earth elements or “REE” mineralisation.

According to the company, the first stage of exploration will involve the acquisition of high-resolution aeromagnetic and radiometric data and other remotely sensed geophysical survey information.

Reconnaissance mapping and surface rock chip and soil sampling will also be undertaken during the initial exploration phase at Mt Weld this quarter.

These activities are a lead up to the development of a more detailed exploration and drilling program at the project, expected to kick off in 2019 when all the necessary regulatory approvals are received.

Great Southern’s strategy is to expand its golden footprint in the very prospective Laverton district, which is surrounded by a number of significant gold mines and numerous other gold discoveries and occurrences.

These include the large Sunrise Dam and Wallaby operations that collectively hold about 25 million gold ounces between them.

Nearby, the Mt Morgans, Lancefield and Granny Smith deposits all contain more than 1 million ounces each and there are multiple other smaller gold mines lying on, or close to, the regionally important Barnicoat shear zone.

Great Southern Mining Executive Chairman John Terpu said: “The … resource estimate on the Mon Ami gold project … was a significant milestone. We (will) … build on this momentum and commence exploration … on the Mt Weld project.”

“… the project … has all the right attributes to host a … discovery of orogenic gold mineralisation.”

At the flagship Mon Ami gold project, the company has already received approval for a follow-up drilling campaign and plans to undertake an extensive program of infill and extensional work aimed at increasing geological confidence of the deposit and proving up further gold ounces.

Three gold lodes have been defined and the discrete zones are open along strike, down-dip and importantly down-plunge.

According to the company, there is a significant number of other gold intersections outside the current resource at Mon Ami that do not have sufficient drill coverage yet to support classification as mineral resources.

These areas represent high priority target zones for Great Southern in its upcoming drilling programs and provide some level of confidence that the resource should grow in line with exploration.