Southern Cross Gold unveils highest-grade gold-antimony mineralisation to-date at Sunday Creek
Drilling at the new Rising Sun target returned a bonanza 0.4m interval grading 380.6g/t gold equivalent.
Southern Cross Gold (ASX: SXG) has hit its highest-grade mineralisation to-date during step-out drilling at its wholly-owned Sunday Creek gold-antimony project in Victoria.
Hole SDDSC046 intercepted 21.5m at 15 grams per tonnes gold equivalent, including a bonanza 2.1m interval grading 121.6g/t gold equivalent, which equated to 115.5g/t gold and 3.9% antimony.
Within the 21.5m intercept there was abundant visible gold with a peak interval of 0.4m grading 380.6g/t gold equivalent.
Southern Cross managing director Michael Hudson said SDDSC046 was the “single best intersection” returned to-date from Sunday Creek.
He said it came from the new Rising Sun target, which is 350m from the Apollo shoot.
“The Sunday Creek system is developing on multiple fronts as we continue to intersect extremely high grades of gold at the upper levels of the system (140m vertically below surface), including 0.4m at 380.6g/t gold equivalent.”
“This bodes well for the potential development of better grades continuing to develop at depth, as we have seen in similar and adjacent epizonal systems in Victoria, that are mined at some of the highest grades globally,” Mr Hudson added.
Other highlight drill results
Another hole drilled at Rising Sun uncovered 12.5m at 2.4g/t gold equivalent (1.1g/t gold and 0.8% antimony) from 241m, including 0.5m at 13.7g/t gold equivalent from 241.4m.
Southern Cross also received assays from an infill hole drilled at Apollo, which returned 0.5m at 11.3g/t gold equivalent (11.3g/t gold) from 172.5m; and 7.6m at 8.3g/t gold equivalent (3.8g/t gold and 2.8% antimony) from 242.3m, including 1.7m at 17.6g/t gold equivalent (11.1g/t gold and 4.1% antimony) from 243.1m.
Drilling tested three areas across 700m of strike, with assays pending for six holes.
Mr Hudson said the ongoing high-grade hits at Sunday Creek continue to demonstrate the project is a “significant exploration discovery” in the Victorian goldfields.
Antimony also critical mineral
While gold is well-known as a critical metal – particularly for its safe haven status during volatile economic times, Southern Cross noted antimony is also a critical metal.
China and Russia dominate global supply – accounting for about 82% of the world’s production.
When alloyed with lead and tin, antimony improves the properties for solders, munitions, bearings and batteries.
It also a prominent additive for halogen-containing flame retardants.
Additionally, antimony is critical in the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries and the next generation of liquid metal batteries that provide energy storage for renewable-powered grids.