St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) is beginning to probe an attractive pipeline of nickel sulphide and gold targets at its East Laverton project in Western Australia, with a new reverse circulation drilling campaign planned for 3,500 metres.
This work will include the first-ever drilling at the project's Atlas gold prospect, where no previous drilling has been carried out and a survey work has identified an extensive gold soil anomaly with a strike over 5,000 metres.
This large composite gold, molybdenum and arsenic soil anomaly straddles an interpreted contact between greenstones and sediment and is considered a typical geochemical signature of gold mineralisation in the northeastern Goldfields region.
More gold drilling will take place at the large, underexplored Red Dragon deposit, which has indicated the potential to host a gold formation with large-scale magmatism and deformation.
St George will also be drilling a massive nickel sulphide target in the project's Windsor area, where a previous downhole electromagnetic survey identified a highly conductive off-hole anomaly (up to 180,000 Siemens) within 5 metres of the hole.
The conductivity of the anomaly at Windsor is several orders of magnitude higher than anything else the company has seen at East Laverton.
East Laverton has a dominant landholding of over 2,000 square kilometres, covering three major ultramafic belts on strike from the Agnew gold deposit which boasts 5 million ounces of gold.
WA development
New traction at East Laverton builds on St George's burgeoning WA portfolio, which was expanded last month through a move to acquire BHP Billiton's 75% interest in the Mt Alexander project.
Mt Alexander is known to host high-grade nickel-copper sulphides, with exploration results including 4 metres at 4.9% nickel, 1.7% copper and 3.9g/t total PGEs from 91.4 metres.
Consideration for the acquisition was set at $300,000, with the transaction scheduled to be completed this month.
This footprint increase in the Goldfields has been interpreted as reinforcing St George’s credentials as a high-quality explorer with an enviable portfolio of projects that provide multiple opportunities for a significant discovery.
Renewed exploration at the site – as well as at the company’s nearby Hawaii project – is expected in the near term.
Hawaii piqued interest late last month with the intersection of high-MgO ultramafics in four holes testing two magnetic trends.
The drilling identified greenstone sequences which have never been explored for nickel sulphide and gold mineralisation
Analysis
The prospectivity of the new East Laverton targets is high, with Windsor in particular standing out due to its extremely elevated levels of conductivity.
New drilling at East Laverton sets up St George for more newsflow even as a number of potential price catalysts await on the near-term horizon.
Final assay results for the company’s 2015 drill program at the project are expected over the next few weeks.
Also, a separate announcement will be made later this week regarding Hawaii and Mt Alexander, where the company said drilling programs will start as soon as possible.
All this activity establishes St George as highly leveraged for drilling success through a systematic approach across a known and well-serviced mineral region.
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