Golden Horse Minerals (ASX:GHM) has identified further visible gold at the Hopes Hill Project in the Southern Cross Greenstone Belt in Western Australia.
The company’s first diamond drill hole to the north of the project intersected 16m @ 6.8 grams per tonne gold from 115m, including 1m @ 98.4g/t gold from 130m within a broader zone of 8m @ 13.1g/t from 123m.
Visible gold was observed within the footwall lode, around 830m north of a previous hole, which also returned ‘high-grade’ visible gold.
The area was previously untested by drilling due to the former operator’s tenement constraints.
Managing Director Nicholas Anderson says these results are “exceptional”, given the lack of drill testing in the area prior.
“Prior operators were constrained by tenement boundaries, with Golden Horse now the beneficiary holder of a large contiguous ground package in the Southern Cross region centred on Hopes Hill,” Anderson says.
“This ownership now facilitates comprehensive drill programs aimed at unlocking the value and potential of the broader Hopes Hill deposit and other regional targets largely untested for decades.”
Golden Horse will conduct follow-up drilling to further test the footwall lode. The company says the area has the potential for a “significantly larger gold system than previously recognised”.
Other ‘significant’ intercepts include 13.6m @ 3g/t gold from 308.4m, including 3m @ 8.3g/t gold from 317m within a broader zone of 7.12m @ 4.4g/t gold from 314.88m; 6m @ 3.15g/t gold from 323m; and 6.1m @ 1.3g/t gold from 414.9m.
“Other reverse circulation and diamond results drilled during the quarter have since been returned, which prove that our strategy of whipping the pony into shape with an aggressive 125km drill budget for 2026 should have the members reaching out to the bookmakers to get in before this horse bolts,” Anderson adds.
Golden Horse is a near-term gold producer focused on its portfolio of assets in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: Golden Horse Minerals
