Eyes on the prize as Golden State prepares for its 2024 field exploration season. Pic via Getty Images
Golden State Mining is positioning itself for a big exploration push across its projects this year
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- Golden State Mining is prioritising work for the 2024 field season
- New Eucla interpretation is an internally generated opportunity to pursue in 2024
- Upcoming mineralogical results will help decide the next step for Paynes Find
- Exploration to continue at high-priority Yule East and Nomad areas after the end of wet season
Special Report: Golden State Mining is reviewing data collected from its 2023 exploration program to prioritise work for the 2024 field season at its Paynes Find, Yule, Eucla and Southern Cross East projects.
From Paynes Find North, the company received further encouraging infill rock chip results, including 1.3% Li2O, 0.5% Rb2O and 205ppm caesium, as well as 1.3% Li2O, 0.4% Rb2O and 221ppm caesium.
The results add further support to Golden State Mining’s (ASX:GSM) belief that Paynes Find – previously known as a gold hotspot – is a potential new lithium province after identifying a series of outcropping pegmatites.
Over at its flagship Yule gold-lithium project in the Pilbara, the company has collected split samples from its 2023 reverse circulation drilling at the Nomad lithium prospect for petrographic and mineralogy analysis.
While this drilling did not return ore grade lithium intersections, it did deliver coherent broad lithium and pathfinder anomalism.
It is also planning for follow-up drilling at the Yule East gold prospect.
At the new and underexplored Eucla copper-gold-nickel-REE project in the Dundas region, the WA-focused company has recovered historical diamond drill core which, under detailed re-logging, presented a mafic host rock as part of a significant intrusive complex with a distinct regional magnetic signature.
GSM’s preliminary pXRF geochemical analysis, spectral data and core observations suggest this mafic intrusive could host a carbonatite target with REE potential.
The company has also completed a field trip to evaluate and prioritise ‘gold in soil’ anomalism targets at the Southern Cross East project in WA’s Goldfields region.
Prioritising work for 2024
“Over the past three months, the company has been able to fully review and digest all the data gathered during the busy exploration field season in 2023,” GSM managing director Michael Moore said.
“During that time, significant progress was made across our Yule, Paynes Find and Southern Cross projects where a number of drilling campaigns as well as multiple soil geochemical surveys and field trips were conducted. All this newly acquired data has been reviewed internally by the GSM technical team as well as our trusted industry experts.
“This significant body of work has now allowed the company to prioritise work for the 2024 field season as well as identifying and rerating new opportunities within the portfolio, such as the Eucla project in the Dundas region of WA.
“GSM has identified multiple elliptical to elongate magnetic anomalies interpreted as potential intrusive mafic bodies or tightly folded banded iron formation (BIF). Only one of these anomalies, with a coincident gravity anomaly was diamond drilled by a previous explorer in 2015.”
Moore added the company had re-logged and analysed drill core from a previous explorer that, along with a new structural interpretation study of the project area, also presented an alternative view of the geophysical data.
This interpretation of a mafic intrusive environment with carbonatite potential represents an internally generated opportunity to pursue in 2024.
At Paynes Find, Moore noted that GSM was now waiting on mineralogical results – expected in early April – before deciding on the next logical exploration steps to take.
Follow-up rock chips and soil samples were obtained from a recent site visit to Southern Cross.
“The Yule project still remains a high priority for GSM and we will be returning there after the wet season to continue our exploration work,” Moore added.
“GSM has delineated a high priority gold exploration area at Yule East as well as an exciting lithium story developing at Nomad where we look forward to receiving the results from the recent petrographic and mineralogy analysis.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Golden State Mining, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
