Mining

Southern Gold tops up coffers and gets busy on the ground at South Korean gold projects

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By Lorna Nicholas - 
Southern Gold ASX SAU South Korea Quarterly 2020 September

Southern Gold’s strategy is to discover world class gold deposits in a region that has seen little modern exploration.

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During the September quarter, Southern Gold (ASX: SAU) was busy on the ground advancing its numerous gold projects in South Korea.

To fund its accelerated exploration plans in the country, Southern Gold raised $10.2 million during the period, which included North American cornerstone investor Crescat Capital joining the register.

Renowned economic geologist Dr Quinton Hennigh currently advises Crescat which manages $130 million-worth of assets.

Dr Hennigh has previously worked with many majors including Newcrest Mining and Newmont.

He is currently chairman and president of TSX-listed gold explorer Novo Resources. However, what Southern Gold is excited about is Dr Hennigh’s experience with an exploration group in Japan, which is similar to Southern Gold.

To undertake the exploration, Ausino Drilling Services was engaged which will provide up to $6.2 million in drilling services across Southern Gold’s projects.

Exploration progress at South Korean projects

By the end of the September quarter, 445.4m of diamond drilling was completed at the Deokon and Weolyu projects.

At Deokon, 105.29m was drilled at the Shin Hill target, which uncovered a peak result of 0.57m at 2.56 grams per tonne gold and 453g/t silver from 101.71m.

Over at Weolyu, drilling started at the Moonlight-Surprise trend, with assays pending.

Meanwhile, surface sampling was completed at Janghwai where a historical adit was discovered, and a grab sample returned 6.7g/t gold.

Southern Gold also secured regulatory approvals to drill at Dokcheon and negotiated land access for future drilling sites at Aphae, where initial drilling has already been completed.

Assays were received from four diamond holes at Aphae from the initial drilling, with notable results of 0.21m at 107.5g/t gold and 166g/t silver from 53.01m, and 40.72m at 0.59g/t gold and 14.1g/t silver from 65.28m, including 0.18m at 5.92g/t gold and 99g/t silver from 85.77m.

Divesting Gubong and Kochang joint venture assets

Also during the September quarter, Southern Gold tendered its 50% stake in Gubong and Kochang for sale to its joint venture partner London Stock Exchange listed Bluebird Merchant Ventures.

The final sales price is yet to be determined after an independent expert was appointed in October to set the price.

It is expected the price will be set shortly, with Bluebird having 60 days to complete the purchase.