Southern Gold focuses on drilling and project generation at South Korea gold assets
Southern Gold’s focus has been on field reconnaissance sampling at database compilation at its Deokon, Yeongdong and Daeam projects.
A busy September quarter saw Southern Gold (ASX: SAU) focus on field reconnaissance sampling and database compilation for upcoming project generation work at its South Korean gold assets.
At the Deokon project, the company completed a short diamond drilling program in response to the discovery earlier this year of the Thistle and Nettle zones, which returned a peak rock chip assay of 8.56 grams per tonne gold and 8,940g/t silver.
The work targeted a strong gold-silver-arsenic soil anomaly at Nettle, with a coincident interpreted intersecting structural position of the north-northwest Golden Surprise trend with a north-northeast trend from detailed structural mapping.
Two holes for 251.2 metres were drilled in the June quarter, with a third hole for 210.75m in July to complete the program.
Results have been received for all three holes with maximum values of 0.22g/t gold and 2.7g/t silver, and a peak intersection of 8.89m at 0.16g/t gold in the third hole.
Southern Gold said the results were disappointing and attributed them to poor host rock and lack of vein development or presence at depth.
It said the overall Deokon project region remained prospective where vein development occurs.
Yeongdong progress
Regional reconnaissance sampling continued in the Yeongdong Basin and surrounds to the north-west and south-east of Southern Gold’s former Weolyu project.
A total of 70 rock samples were collected before the onset of the wet season and all assays have been received, along with a further 114 assays for samples taken in the previous quarter.
Eleven samples returned more than 0.5g/t gold and a peak assay of 16.6g/t gold, with numerous high-grade base metal results returned from the dumps of historical workings.
Southern Gold’s immediate plan is to focus on project generation to define new prospects which can be systematically worked up into quality drill targets.
The company said the Daeam project is close to being drill-ready after planned geological fact mapping in October-November and once vegetation recedes post wet season and prior to winter.
Database updating
Southern Gold said its exploration database – which incorporates a large amount of geological, geophysical and geochemical information – will require updating prior to new target and project generation.
The updates are being coordinated by the company’s staff in Korea using publicly-available information from government sources including Korea Resources Corporation (KORES), Korea Institute of Geoscience and Minerals Resources (KIGAM) and Korean Mine Reclamation Corporation (MIRECO).
Spatial infrastructure development and land category data will also be included in the database to allow for more precise prioritisation of exploration efforts in newly-targeted areas based on land access regulations and restrictions.
The revised and updated database will be applied for the purpose of refreshed basin-hosted epithermal gold-silver exploration targeting.