Early exploration at Southern Hemisphere Mining’s Paraburdoo project in Western Australia’s renowned Pilbara region has indicated the potential for conglomerate gold.

“The gold is in the right setting for conventional gold deposits and we also have the potential for conglomerate-hosted gold,” director Keith Coughlan said.

Conglomerate gold refers to nuggets hosted in rock featuring rounded gray quartz pebbles and other minerals. The world’s most productive gold region, South Africa’s Witwatersrand Basin, is famous for its conglomerate geological formation.

Southern Hemisphere (ASX:SUH) says the geological setting of its Paraburdoo project is similar to conglomerate ground at Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV) and Novo Resources’ high profile Purdy’s Reward project.

Artemis and Novo kicked off a Pilbara gold nugget rush mid-last year, which eventually determined the type of gold being found was conglomerate-hosted.

Southern Hemisphere operates on the southern edge of the Pilbara Basin.

The tenements, which the company applied for late last year, are geologically associated with the Lower Fortescue Group on the southern boundary of the Fortescue Basin.

The Fortescue Group of volcanic rock formations are known to host gold and other minerals.

While the main focus at the Paraburdoo project will be conventional gold, Southern Hemisphere has every intention of following up the conglomerate gold potential.

SUH shares over the past six months.
SUH shares over the past six months.

“We’ve uncovered just in that first part 13km of strike length. It’s potentially quite a significant occurrence,” Mr Coughlan told Stockhead.

“We will do the work for the conventional occurrences, but also we’d be mad not to look at conglomerate-style deposits as well given what is happening in the area.”

Stream sediment samples have identified large areas, up to 4 sq km in size, of highly anomalous gold values in an area previously unexplored for gold.

Southern Hemisphere is now putting together an exploration program, which it doesn’t expect to be too costly.

“I think we can get some good indicative results quite early without a lot of work and without spending a lot of money,” Mr Coughlan said.

The company is aiming to be back on the ground in the Pilbara as soon as possible.