Golden Horse Minerals (ASX:GHM) has commenced its maiden aircore (AC) drilling program at the Southern Cross Gold Project in Western Australia, with work expected to continue for about two months.
The rig is operating at the Randwick prospect, about 10km from the town of Southern Cross, testing more than 5km of prospective ground along strike from the Greenmount discovery.
Recent reverse circulation (RC) drilling at Greenmount returned 8m @ 16.3 grams per tonne gold (Au) from 209m in hole 26GMRC006, 8m @ 8.6g/t Au from 218m in 26GMRC004, and 12m @ 5.2g/t Au from 139m in 26GMRC005.
Across Randwick and Flemington, the company plans more than 15km of AC drilling. Historical exploration has been limited by expansive soil cover and cropping.
Randwick is a southern fold nose with historical soil anomalies extending along more than 5km of strike, which the company considers geologically analogous to Greenmount.
Further west, Flemington lies on the western flank of the greenstone assemblage, where geophysical imagery shows multiple faults and foliated granitoids.
Managing Director and CEO Nicholas Anderson says the Randwick program aims to identify vectors towards mineralisation.
“We have a new pony in the stable, with the aircore rig commencing drilling activities at the Randwick prospect,” Anderson notes.
“After Randwick, we’ll then move to Flemington to test the Rankin Trend, which we anticipate will be a different style of mineralisation, being along strike of historic workings at Mt Rankin.”
The AC program aims to confirm regional geology, identify targets for follow-up RC drilling, and gather geochemical data. Sampling and assaying will continue through to the end of the year.
Thoroughbred RC rig targets Bullfinch
In parallel, RC drilling at the Hopes Hill prospect will continue for several weeks, with resource modelling, core processing, and assaying progressing alongside.
The RC rig will then relocate to regional targets north of Bullfinch, including the Hughes Hill and Violet prospects within the Golden Valley Group, and the Withers prospect.
Drilling will target sedimentary-hosted mineralisation at Hughes Hill and Violet, and granite-hosted quartz veins at Withers, differing from the shear-hosted system at Hopes Hill.
“Our thoroughbred RC rig drills on, with several regional targets being tested in the coming months […] targeting mineralisation within 10km of Bullfinch,” Anderson adds.
Golden Horse holds more than 1,800km2 of tenure in the Southern Cross Greenstone Belt, with more than 130km of prospective strike along the Fraser Shear Zone to test. It also holds the Sorrel Copper Project in the Northern Territory.
The company says it will update the market on drilling progress, assay results, and geological interpretations as they become available.
Golden Horse Minerals is an Australian explorer focused on gold in WA and copper in the NT.
Write to JC Villarba at Mining.com.au
Images: Golden Horse Minerals
