There has been action aplenty among the gold juniors of late with Overland Resources and Monax Mining recently inking deals over two separate Western Australian gold projects in world-class greenstone belts.

Overland (ASX:OVR) has grabbed an option to buy 75 per cent of Yandal East gold project from Zebina Minerals while Monax (ASX: MOX) has signed a deal with Ramelius Resources to take a 60 per cent stake in the Western Queen gold project.

Interest in the two deals was mixed. Investors welcomed Overland’s deal with the stock closing 14 per cent higher at 0.8c. However, investors didn’t show Monax much love with the stock finishing the day unchanged at 0.6c.

Overland’s deal with Zebina gives it a significant landholding in the world-class Yandal Greenstone Belt.

The belt hosts several significant gold mines including Norther Star’s Jundee mine which has produced 7 million ounces, as well as the Bronzewing mine (4Moz produced) and Darlot mine (3. 5Moz produced).

Yandal East covers 327 sq km of the belt and is made up of five tenements including four granted exploration licences and one exploration licence under application.

Overland is reviewing previous explorations which have revealed 1868 holes drilled since the early 1970s. However there has been little recent activity with only 44 holes completed since the 1990s.

The Ward prospect is the most advanced at Yandal East and contains mineralisation that extends over 5.5km of strike length. Historical drilling returned thick intercepts of 13 metres at 3.1 grams per tonne gold and higher grade intercepts including 2m at 5.7gpt gold.

At the Cowza prospect, which lies 7km from Ward, mineralisation was discovered back in 1997 by Eagle Mining in joint venture with Normandy. The best intercept from drilling is 12 metres at 9.7 grams per tonne.

Overland said further drilling was needed to define the limits of the mineralised system at Cowza.

Overland is hopeful of finding significant new discoveries using modern exploration techniques and is in the process of identifying best targets for drilling.

Under the deal, Overland has an option to acquire the stake on or before end of February 2019 and is required to spend $350,000 on the project within the option period.

Meanwhile, Monax’s deal will see it earn 60 per cent in the Western Queen project by spending $2 million over three years on further drilling.

The project lies 90 kilometres from Mt Magnet and 40 kilometres from the Dalgaranga gold project, currently being developed by Gascoyne Resources.

It consists of two mining leases covering around 5-kilometre strike length of the Warda Warra greenstone belt and includes the previously mined Western Queen and Western Queen South gold deposits.

Monax will test extensions of known high grade shoots below the Western Queen and Western Queen South open pits, as well as test the area between the pits and north of the Western Queen pit where drilling is limited and shallow.

Ramelius previously estimated an indicated and inferred resource of 185,000 tonnes at 3.5 grams per tonne gold for 21,000 ounces of gold at Western Queen South.

Monax expects to estimate a new resource at both Western Queen and Western Queen South once existing drilling has been reviewed and verified.

This resource estimate is expected to be completed in the December quarter 2017.

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