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Doug Bright
Golden Dragon Mining has made a strategic move to bolster its position in Western Australia’s prolifically gold-productive Murchison goldfields, lodging a new exploration licence application adjacent to the northeastern margin of Westgold’s revered 2.3-million-ounce Big Bell gold mine, 26km northwest of the historic town of Cue.
The new 28-square-kilometre application will extend Golden Dragon’s exposure to the Big Bell Shear zone by an additional 6.5 km northward along strike of the shear zone.
Once granted, and alongside an existing exploration licence application, the company’s contiguous landholding in the area will increase to an estimated 619 square kilometres.
The Cue project sits in the Archean Watagee Hill Greenstone Belt, a Tier-1 gold province that hosts a string of significant deposits. Golden Dragon’s ground takes in major regional structures including the Big Bell Shear and the Cuddingwarra Shear zones, both of which are considered highly prospective but largely underexplored in some areas due to transported surface cover.
‘We are entering an exciting phase where multiple targets will be advanced in parallel, giving us several pathways to discovery.’
“We are entering an exciting phase where multiple targets will be advanced in parallel, giving us several pathways to discovery.”
The company’s move to pick up ground right on the fence line of the giant Big Bell operation speaks volumes about its ambitions in the region.
Golden Dragon Mining managing director Simon Buswell-Smith said: “This new tenement application is a highly strategic addition to our portfolio, located right on the doorstep of one of the region’s largest gold producers. The new application extends our control of the Big Bell Shear Zone and positions Golden Dragon with one of the most compelling exploration footprints in the Murchison.”
While the new licence application is being processed, the company has a full plate of targets to get stuck into across its existing tenure. Recent drilling at its Coodardy prospect, 22km northeast of the historic Big Bell mine, has confirmed the presence of coherent, high-grade shoots.
A recent follow-up drill program in May returned a headline-grabbing hit of 12m at 6.5 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from just 44m, which included a richer 4-metre section grading an impressive 17.6g/t gold.
That result lines up neatly with a previous intercept from the company’s previously identified high-grade intercept that delivered 8m at 10.82g/t gold from 25m, including a spectacular 4m at 21.37g/t gold. Management says the mineralisation at Coodardy has been defined over about 500m of strike and remains open to the north and south. Adding another layer of intrigue is a newly identified north-east mineralised orientation at Coodardy that is yet to feel the drill bit.
Elsewhere within the Cue project, the company has a grab bag of at least 14 other prospects demanding attention. At Stockyard East, a historical drill hole put in by Enterprise Metals in 2010 hit 8m at 5.8g/t gold at depth, a result that has, to date, not been followed up. The company describes it as a large-scale, underexplored system with untested extensions along strike.
The Big Bell North prospect, just 16km along strike from its namesake mine, shares similar host rock sequences. Drilling has intersected a suite of pathfinder elements similar to that at Big Bell, suggesting it could be in the right neighbourhood for a significant discovery.
Twelve kilometres along strike from the Big Bell mine, previous third-party exploration returned a 130m wide gold-anomalous zone at the base of oxidation, which is open for 800m along strike. Further exploration opportunities also exist around the Big Bell Mine, where reinterpretation suggests potential for parallel or offset gold lodes.
The company’s Jeffery Well prospect lies 50km northeast of the Big Bell mine and is defined by a more than one-kilometre-long mineralised structural corridor. Historical drilling there returned high-grade results, highlighting additional strong exploration and resource potential.
With a healthy $4.06 million in cash as of its last report and a swag of targets on its books, Golden Dragon is now gearing up for the next phase of exploration.
In its northeastern exploration licence area, the company will focus on a heritage survey along the Jeffery Well corridor and on several targets within the licence area. That will then be followed up by deeper drilling at the Jeffery Well target and first-pass aircore drilling along the Jeffery Well – Big Bell shear zone.
Three significant elongate target areas referred to as Tucka 1, 2 and 3, aligned along a sinusoidal structure that runs south of Jeffery Well and to its northeast, have also been earmarked for soil sampling and further mapping.
Having already hit high-grade gold at its Cue project, Golden Dragon’s latest ground play cheek-by-jowl with one of the Murchison’s most significant mines could prove to be a shrewd move.
As the company’s systematic exploration plan continues to roll on, the market will be watching to see if the junior can uncover the next major prize in this serious golden elephant country.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
