Great Southern Mining discovers large gold system at the Edinburgh Park project

Special Report: Great Southern Mining (ASX:GSN) has uncovered the ‘signature’ of a large Intrusive Related Gold System at the Leichhardt Creek prospect – “a significant step toward potentially discovering that Tier-1 deposit,” chief operating officer Mark Major says.

Great Southern’s ~1000sqkm Edinburgh Park project is next door to Evolution Mining’s (ASX:EVN) highly profitable Mt Carlton gold mine, which produced ~107,000oz in FY19 at a low all-in sustaining cost of ~$740 per ounce.

Great Southern is hunting for a Mt Carlton of its own, but less than 15 per cent of the highly prospective 1000sqkm Edinburgh Park area has been explored using modern techniques.

A systematic soil sampling and mapping program — the first systematic gold focused exploration program undertaken in the Leichhardt Creek area — was completed over highly prospective targets identified from newly acquired hyperspectral data, geological mapping, and aerial geophysics.

The most significant result of the soil sampling program is the recognition of a very large hydrothermal system with Intrusive Related Gold System (IRGS) affinity, says Great Southern.

These things can be huge; notable IRGS systems in North Queensland include Kidston (5 million ounces), Ravenswood (7 million ounces) and Mt Leyshon (3.5 million ounces).

The Leichhardt IRGS exhibits low-grade metal ‘anomalism’ signatures in clearly defined zones:

Great Southern Leichhardt Creek prospect (Image Supplied)

This geochemical domaining has identified five previously unrecognised high priority targets for gold mineralisation within this system, along with secondary copper and molybdenum mineralised target systems.

The “scale and magnitude” of both these geophysical and geochemical anomalies suggest the presence of a large IRGS at Leichhardt, says Great Southern.

A more extensive soil sampling grid and mapping program will now be extended to encompass the full extent of the mineralised system.

“The prospect has all the technical attributes of a major IRGS exhibiting strong metal content,” chief operating officer Mark Major says.

“This as a significant step toward potentially discovering that Tier-1 deposit.

“Our focus here will now be on defining the full extent of this system through expanding the geochemical program and utilising geophysical methods to start defining this system in three dimensions; while we undertake more geochemical and mapping programs over other priority target areas within the extensive 1,062 km2 landholding.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Great Southern 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.