Celsius Resources joins Lachlan Fold Belt gold rush
Celsius Resources has entered a binding heads of agreement to acquire the Cullarin West Project in the Lachlan Fold Belt from Syndicate Minerals for 20 million Celsius shares.
Celsius Resources (ASX: CLA) has picked up historic gold ground on the Lachlan Fold Belt of NSW that lies along strike from an adjacent recent discovery.
Celsius will acquire 100% of the Cullarin West project from privately owned Syndicated Minerals in return for 20 million new shares in the listed junior.
The new project is adjacent to, and along strike from, the recent Cullarin discovery of 93m at 4.24 grams per tonne gold by Sky Metals (ASX: SKY).
Celsius said an initial desktop review, including a site visit, indicates the project is underlain by similar geological and structural features to those that host the Cullarin deposit.
Cullarin West is one of the growing number of projects being found under cover. The company said the widespread recent cover that obscures bedrock geology meant only limited exploration had taken place there.
Ground includes two historical goldfields
Chairman Bill Oliver said that, with limited historical exploration and being located in a highly sought-after region along from a noted gold discovery, Cullarin West offered the company an exciting opportunity at a low-cost entry price.
“We are eager to get on the ground as soon as practical once the tenement is granted,” he added.
In parallel, the company would continue to look for ways to further diversify its mineral and commodities portfolio. The company has a cobalt project in Namibia and two nickel ones in Western Australia.
The new project includes the historical Gooda Creek and Daltons goldfields.
Gooda Creek had hosted a high-grade, small-scale mining operation. Limited shallow drilling in 1987 returned 1.95m at 23.1g/t gold and 1% copper.
The Dalton goldfield, another small-scale operation, had produced gold with an average above 10g/t but there had been little modern exploration there.
Celsius said its first priorities would be to resample a historical drill hole that in 1976 showed elevated levels of base metals and silver — but was not assayed for gold. The drill core is stored at the NSW core library in Londonderry in greater western Sydney.
There would also be geochemical sampling to define further drill targets.
Sought after address in NSW exploration
Celsius said that, with prevailing gold prices reaching historic highs, the Lachlan Fold Belt has received fresh attention.
In addition to Sky’s intensive drilling program of the old Hume field, historic gold mines on the belt such as Stuart Town, Mt Adrah and Adelong have been acquired recently by new owners — Kaiser Reef (ASX: KAU), Fraser Range Metals (ASX: FRN) and 3D Resources (ASX: DDD) respectively.
The recent gold discovery by Alkane Resources (ASX: ALK) at Boda has sparked fresh exploration for copper-gold porphyry systems by companies such as Magmatic Resources (ASX: MAG), DevEx Resources (ASX: DEV), Godolphin Resources (ASX: GRL), Krakatoa Resources (ASX: KTA), Argent Minerals (ASX: ARD) and Canadian listed Kincora Resources.