• “Jewellery box” intercept of 2,670g/t gold is the highest grade seen at Sunday Creek
  • “One of the top drill holes drilled globally by any ASX-listed gold company this year” MD Michael Hudson
  • Seriously high-grade intercepts were previously missing from the Sunday Creek epizonal-gold system
  • More than 26,000m of drilling planned until April 2024

 

2,670g/t gold. That’s the top interval that Southern Cross reported within an equally astonishing 404.4m intercept at 5.1g/t gold from drilling at its Sunday Creek project in Victoria.

Not only is the top interval the highest grade ever seen at Sunday Creek, the broader zone intersected by hole SDDSC077B is also almost three times better than the previous best hole drilled by the company.

A fantastic result especially when one considers that it wasn’t all that long ago that Southern Cross Gold (ASX:SXG) celebrated its first year on the ASX, which was accompanied by a three-fold return on investment.

Sunday Creek itself – located 60km north of Melbourne – was no greenfields project when the company brought it under its purview, extending as it does over 10km of old mines, soil sampling and early-stage work.

However, most of this work was focused in and around the old mines. The company’s step-out drilling prior to listing had already delivered winners such as a 3m grading 41.4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 12% antimony within a broader 11.7m zone at 12.4g/t gold and 3.6% antimony.

Even then, its drilling had only covered 10% of the identified strike, leaving plenty of ground for more gold to be found.

 

Gold? Oh yes there’s gold

Southern Cross has not disappointed since then, with drilling delivering one stellar result after another.

Recent winners have included the previous best hole, SDDSC050, which had returned a 520.8m interval grading 1.7g/t gold, or 861 AuEq gram metres (gold equivalent grade multiplied by the interval) in the Rising Sun shoot, and SDDSC068 that had extended mineralisation at project down-dip by 500m at the Apollo zone.

However, all these pale in comparison with hole SDDSC077B, which also targeted Rising Sun, and its 404.4m intercept at 5.6g/t gold equivalent (5.1g/t gold and 0.3% antimony), or a cumulative 2,272 AuEq gram metres, from a down-hole depth of 374m.

The hole intersected 13 distinct zones of mineralisation with visible gold noted in 28 individual restricted zones while seven intervals returned +100g/t gold.

Rising Sun itself remains open up-dip, down-dip and along strike with hole SDDSC082 currently being drilled at the shoot.

SDDSC082 is targeting mineralisation 100 m below SDDSC077B and has already intersected multiple zones of mineralisation from 413 m to the current depth of 870 m down hole with visible gold noted in multiple individual restricted zones to date.

“This (SDDSC077B) is the best hole drilled at Sunday Creek, with almost three times more contained gold as our previous best hole. It is also one of the top drill holes drilled globally by any ASX-listed gold company this year,” Managing Director Michael Hudson said.

“Southern Cross Gold has again delivered on our strategy of demonstrating grade, volume, and scale by drilling a 25 m to 60 m spaced extension of high-grade mineralisation around SDDSC050 for the first time.”

“One of our key strategies is to target high grades. When this is done in a good deposit, generally more drilling improves the discovery rate of high-grade material.”

This is clearly the case at Sunday Creek with Hudson noting that SDDSC077B had not only intersected 13 high-grade veins with three intervals – 5.4m at 39.3g/t AuEq, 4.9m at 36.1g/t AuEq and 6.9m at 205.2g/t AuEq – being amongst the top 10 highest intersections at the project to date.

“The continuity of gold-bearing structures between the holes is encouraging, especially in the hanging wall to the dyke where the better mineralisation appears to be focused at Rising Sun.”

 

An emerging epizonal gold system

Hudson added that until now, seriously high grades such as the 0.4m interval at 2,670g/t gold in SDDSC077B, were missing from the Sunday Creek epizonal-gold system.

“Epizonal deposits host some of the highest-grade gold mines globally due to the presence of these “jewellery boxes” that can dramatically affect potential deposit grades,” he added.

“Sunday Creek will now also be known as a project that has the propensity to develop these high grades. To have already discovered this many high-grade hits, at this early stage of the discovery history, is an extremely meaningful result.”

 

High-grade scale

The latest result, which sent shares in the company up 58%, might be one of the record books but the company is a long way from being done.

Southern Cross can move to add and connect the existing high-grade zones in and around the Rising Sun and Apollo areas and/or carry out step-out drilling along strike and down-dip at Rising Sun to add to the existing mineral endowment.

Mineralised occurrences at Apollo, Rising Sun, Golden Dyke and Christina are also open down dip and along strike.

The company adds that Sunday Creek has district-scale exploration potential with an 11km mineralised trend extending beyond the initial target drill area which is defined by historical workings and soil sampling.

This large footprint is being drill tested for the very first time at the Tonstal, Consols and Leviathan prospects with 12 holes totalling 2,383m drilled to date within the regional area between 3,500m to 7,500m along strike from the core drill area.

Four rigs are currently operating at Sunday Creek with the company planning to drill an additional 26,000m by April 2024 to add to the 19,626m drilled to date in 2023.

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Southern Cross Gold, 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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