Southern Cross hits the accelerator, ups drill capacity by 250pc

The potential to unlock more high-grade gold and antimony at its Sunday Creek project has proven irresistible to Southern Cross Gold, which has unveiled plans to accelerate drilling.

While two rigs are currently drilling at the Rising Sun and Apollo shoots, the company plans to effectively increase drill capacity by 250% by optimising rig utilisation from month’s end and adding another drill crew.

Southern Cross Gold (ASX:SXG) recently drilled four holes totalling 1,545m and is completing a further two holes at the Apollo, Rising Sun and Gladys areas with assay results pending.

“We are extremely happy to have the second drill rig operational at Sunday Creek with two additional drill crews which demonstrates our confidence in the project,” managing director Michael Hudson said.

“We have already drilled over 13,500m at Sunday Creek in less than two years and now more metres will be drilled faster to continue to delineate gold-antimony mineralisation, with results delivered more often.

“We also look forward to receiving results from the pending drill holes that have been sent to the assay laboratory, especially from the two prioritised drill holes drilled in the main axis of the Apollo shoot (SDDSC038-39), targeted 60m above and 40m below drillhole SDDSC033 (119.2m at 3.2g/t gold and 0.4% antimony (3.9g/t gold equivalent).”

Thick, high-grade mineralisation

Sunday Creek is an epizonal-style gold project located 60km north of Melbourne where drilling by the company has returned some very intriguing drill hits.

Sunday Creek already contains thirteen >100 AuEq gram-metre intercepts (grade multiplied by intersection width) – an intriguing development given that just three >100 gram-metre intercepts is reason enough for some of the largest gold companies to declare a bona fide discovery.

Adding further interest, the project also hosts significant quantities of antimony, a little known yet critical metal valued for its flame and heat resistant properties.

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.