Special Report: North Stawell Minerals will soon begin one of the largest drilling programs of any ASX-listed junior explorer in Victoria’s resurgent gold fields, indicating its confidence in the potential for its significant landholding to yield the next big gold mine.

Not long after debuting on the ASX, North Stawell Minerals (ASX:NSM) has secured a drilling contractor to start an initial 10,000m of a planned 75,000m exploration blitz in the Stawell gold region.

Stawell is a key part of Victoria’s ‘Golden Triangle’, responsible for over 66 million oz of combined historical gold production. The Stawell Mineralised Corridor itself has yielded 6 million oz of historical production.

Map of Victoria showing the nine structural zones and historic gold production. Pic: Supplied.

North Stawell’s extensive landholding takes in 51 strike kilometres of the Stawell Mineralised Corridor to the north-west of the Stawell gold mine, which until 2008 was Victoria’s premier gold producer and has produced over 5 million oz.

The company’s tenements already include 43 individual gold targets, 17 of which are basalt domes similar to the Magdala dome, one of multiple basalt domes structures that feature throughout the Stawell Mineralised Corridor, which stretches for at least 250km north to south through Victoria.

Contractor DeepCore Drilling will begin drilling with two rigs at the Wildwood prospect, which already hosts an inferred JORC-compliant 55,000oz resource, in November to test for down-plunge extensions of known mineralised lodes and an additional westerly lode.

 

Strong evidence of shallow, high-grade gold

Historic exploration to the north of the Stawell mine identified a number of prospects with potential to host significant gold mineralisation.

North Stawell is prioritising Wildwood after a review of historical drilling showed potential for shallow, high-grade gold from hits like 12.3m at 12.61 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 34.8m and 11m at 11.61g/t from 54m.

“Our exploration ramp-up is proceeding to plan with numerous pleasant surprises from the historical data review that we believe will positively impact near-term drill target selection,” CEO Steven Tambanis said.

“We are updating our electronic database, expanding our exploration team and prioritising our planned drilling programs.

“With 75,000m of drilling budget in place and commencement of drilling in November, we expect to significantly ramp up drilling and exploration activity into the March quarter next year.

“We keenly anticipate this initial program at Wildwood with the brownfield nature of the program combined with utilising the discovery template of the Magdala Dome heightening our chances of a substantial discovery.”

By the March quarter of 2021, North Stawell plans to be drilling concurrently on basalt domes on multiple permits.

 

This article was developed in collaboration with North Stawell Mines, 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.

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