St George Mining Ltd (ASX:SGQ) continues to build momentum with a suite of exploration programs across its Western Australian projects, including the Paterson Copper-Gold project, Mt Alexander Nickel-Copper-Platinum Group Element (PGE) Project and Ajana Nickel-Copper-PGE project.
St George is an exploration-focused company, advancing a large pipeline of prospects in an effort to make a “world-class” deposit discovery in WA.
“Exciting exploration programs have ramped up over the past month at our projects – particularly at Paterson and Mt Alexander where important field activities are underway,” St George Mining executive chair John Prineas said.
Paterson project
At Paterson, St George has completed the first two holes of a maiden diamond drilling program, finding localised geological alteration surrounding sets of cross-cutting veins in the drill core – indicating the company has hit host rocks that form part of the Yeneena Basin package, which hosts several deposits.
“Diamond drilling at Paterson is testing the basement rocks for the very first time with early indications confirming the prospective rock types for copper-gold deposits in the region,” Prineas explained.
“Geological observations of the drill core report intense alteration and that the rocks have been subject to pervasive hydrothermal fluids.
“Visual logging of copper sulphides adds further support for the potential of significant mineralisation on our ground.”
Mt Alexander project
At Mt Alexander, St George has formed a joint venture agreement with IGO Ltd to develop tenement E29/638 following IGO’s takeover of Western Areas Ltd (ASX:WSA), the original joint venture partner.
E29/638 covers the Cathedrals, Stricklands, Investigators and Radar nickel-copper-PGE discoveries, but all other tenements at Mt Alexander are fully owned by St George.
“At Mt Alexander, an extension seismic survey has been completed and a new electromagnetic (EM) survey – employing the latest ARMIT technology – is underway,” Prineas said.
“These geophysical surveys have been designed to investigate large target areas for nickel-copper sulphides which are underexplored or unexplored, with drilling of these areas scheduled to commence next month.”
Ajana project
St George has interpreted a 20-kilometre-long potential strike at Ajana from modelled airborne magnetic data, crosscut by the same dykes that host the historical lead and zinc sulphide deposits in the Northampton mineral field.
The company has applied for two additional exploration licences adjacent to granted exploration licences, increasing the project area from 330 square kilometres to 580 square kilometres.
“The ongoing modelling of the new magnetic data for Ajana is revealing exactly what we were hoping to see – a late-stage layered mafic intrusion,” Prineas said.
“The location of this intrusion in an established mineral field with many base metal deposits is very favourable for the potential for the intrusion to be associated with further mineralisation.
“We are pleased to have pegged additional ground contiguous to our existing exploration licences, giving us the substantial landholding in this unexplored area of the Northampton mineral field.
“The company looks forward to reporting back to our shareholders on these active work programs with exciting news flow.”