Special Report: North Stawell Minerals has hit the ground running with an initial 10,000m of a planned 75,000m exploration blitz in the Stawell gold region of Victoria’s resurgent gold fields.
The first diamond drill rig is now spinning on the Wildwood prospect, which already hosts an inferred JORC-compliant 55,000oz resource, to test for down-plunge and strike extensions of known mineralised lodes. Two more rigs are planned to commence drilling in early January.
North Stawell Minerals (ASX:NSM) made Wildwood its first priority 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.
The company plans to fast track its exploration effort in the Stawell gold region, with two more rigs due to start drilling in January 2021. It is one of the largest drilling programs of any ASX-listed junior explorer, with 75,000m of drilling expected to be completed over the next two years.
“The 10,000m drill program at Wildwood is expected to run well into the March quarter CY21 and we expect to have three drill rigs mobilised and drilling multiple targets in RL7051 by early 2021,” CEO Steven Tambanis said.
“This initial program is a just a small portion of the 75,000m of drilling budgeted in the coming two years.”
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.
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 5Moz Magdala dome. North Stawell believes there is strong potential for the discovery of a large gold mineralised system under cover, using the Magdala dome as an exploration model.
“The brownfield nature of the program combined with utilising the discovery template of the Magdala Dome leaves us highly optimistic of success in our initial drilling,” Tambanis said.
While Wildwood is being drilled, the company will focus on a 20km long belt of
interpreted basalt along strike of the current resource area.
North Stawell shares gained 5.3 per cent to hit an intra-day high of 49.5c on Wednesday.
North Stawell Minerals (ASX:NSM) share price chart:
This article was developed in collaboration with North Stawell Minerals, 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.