ASX-listed junior gold explorer Great Southern Mining has uncovered another cluster of high-grade gold hits from its exciting Southern Star deposit at the company’s Duketon gold project about 45 kilometres north of Laverton in Western Australia’s prolific north-eastern Goldfields. The pick of the latest batch of assays from its maiden reverse circulation drill program at Southern Star are 7 metres at an average grade of 13.9 grams per tonne gold from 123m including 1m at a bonanza 91.7 g/t and 9m going 3.3 g/t from 124m including 1m at 24.9 g/t.
Other stand-out intersections in the latest set of intercepts to be reported were 7m grading an average 5.3 g/t from 162m including 3m at 11.7 g/t and 27m at 1.5 g/t from 77m including 6m at 5 g/t gold.
According to Great Southern management, the impressive drill results were returned from outside the previously known extent of near-surface gold mineralisation and also point to Southern Star’s underground potential.
The Perth-based company recently picked up the Duketon tenements package that encompasses more than 450 square kilometres of the gold-bearing Duketon greenstone belt.
Great Southern’s inaugural RC drilling campaign at Southern Star, where it has to date put down 22 holes for an aggregate coverage of 3,421m, is designed to ascertain the continuity of the prospect’s gold mineralisation.
Significantly, the company says the mineralisation remains open to the north, south and at depth.
Great Southern Mining Chief Executive Officer Sean Gregory said: “The results clearly demonstrate the significance and potential of the (Southern Star) deposit given the noted similarities to the much larger million-ounce open-pit and underground gold mine at Rosemont and to the Ben Hur deposit, both along strike on the same regional mineralised structure.”
“The presence of these high-grade intersections at depth and outside of known zones of thick near-surface gold mineralisation give us the imperative to immediately follow up with more drilling.”
Earlier this month Great Southern reported an initial round of very encouraging drill hits from Southern Star highlighted by a thick 59m intersection weighing in at 2.1 g/t from 53m depth including 9m at 4.5 g/t and 16m at 3.2 g/t gold.
Southern Star also coughed up a wide 46m at 1.2 g/t gold from 40m including 11m at 3.4 g/t, 5m at 2.7 g/t from 127m including 2m at 6.3 g/t and 19m at 1.8 g/t from 64m including 6m at 3.9 g/t gold in the same round.
The company says it intends undertaking further drilling aimed at testing for strike extensions at Southern Star and increasing the drill density around the centre of the deposit which has seen sparse drilling in the past.
Great Southern suggests Southern Star’s geological characteristics are analogous to those of Regis Resources’ 390,000-ounce Ben Hur gold deposit 4km north-west along strike on the Rosemont auriferous trend and Regis’ one million ounce-plus Rosemont open-pit and underground gold mine about 24km north-west along strike.
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By Matt Birney
