Southern Cross Gold reports more high-grade results from Sunday Creek project
New high-grade gold results from Southern Cross’ Victorian project demonstrate horizontal continuity of a steeply plunging shoot.
Southern Cross Gold (ASX: SXG) has reported high-grade results from three drill holes testing near-surface and lateral extensions of the Apollo structure at its wholly-owned gold-antimony Sunday Creek project in Victoria.
The holes were designed to test the edges of the Apollo shoot over a strike of 30 metres.
The presence of high-grade, vein-hosted gold within a broader lower grade halo demonstrated the northwest-southeast horizontal continuity of the steeply-plunging shoot.
Best results were 42.4m at 1 gram per tonne gold equivalent (0.8g/t gold and 0.1% antimony) from 87.8m including 0.6m at 16.4g/t gold; 0.2m at 30.9g/t (3.2g/t gold and 17.5% antimony); and 12.4m at 1.9g/t gold equivalent (1.4g/t gold and 0.3% antimony) from 160m, including 0.3m at 7.29g/t (7g/t gold and 0.2% antimony) from 160.4 m and 0.5m at 11.3g/t (8.5g/t gold and 1.8% antimony) from 170.5m.
Also reported was an intersection of 9m at 1.9g/t gold equivalent (1.8g/t gold and 0.1% antimony) from 43.8m, including 1.2m at 7.1g/t (6.4g/t gold and 0.4% antimony) from 44.8m and 0.3m at 7.6g/t (0.0g/t gold and 4.8% antimony) from 131.2m.
High-grade gold-antimony structures were intersected in all holes.
Additional drilling
Southern Cross continues to drill at Sunday Creek with one rig in operation and a second to be mobilised shortly to site.
A further two prioritised holes have been completed within the axis of the main mineralised Apollo shoot, directly above and below an existing hole which returned 119.2m at 3.2g/t gold and 0.4% antimony (3.9g/t gold equivalent) in May.
Assay results for these holes are pending.
Critical metal
Antimony is considered a critical metal by Australia, the United States, Canada, Japan and the European Union.
Approximately 82% of the world’s annual supply is produced by China and Russia to feed global raw material demand.
Australia ranks seventh in the world for antimony production despite all production coming from a single mine at Costerfield in Victoria, located nearby to Southern Cross’ projects.
Antimony alloys with lead and tin to produce improved properties for solders, military applications, bearings and batteries, and is a prominent additive for halogen-containing flame retardants.
Adequate supplies of antimony are critical to the world’s energy transition, and to the high-tech industry, especially the semi-conductor and defence sectors.
The metal is a critical element in the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries and to the next generation of liquid metal batteries which lead to scalable energy storage for wind and solar power.