Southern Cross Gold Consolidated Ltd (ASX: SX2) has reported strong results from the most recent drilling at its flagship Sunday Creek gold and antimony project in Victoria.
The company said in a statement to the ASX that it had hit record grades at the Apollo mineralised system, returning an intersection of 17.3m at 22.9 grams per tonne equivalent, including 6.3m at 32.3 grams per tonne equivalent.
The company also pointed out that the results were high in antimony, with multiple intervals in the four holes in question exceeding 20% antimony, "consistent with the zonation model that predicts the richest antimony grades in the upper 700 m of the system''.
The company said this was important given current antimony prices and global supply constraints.
Image source: Getty Images
Strong drilling results
South Cross Chief Executive Michael Hudson said the results were significant.
As he said:
These four holes do something important — they demonstrate that the upper Apollo system, within 220 vertical metres of surface, is capable of hosting extremely high gold antimony grades across broad widths. The 17.3 m at 22.9 g/t gold equivalent in SDDSC200 is the best composite we've ever recorded in the top portion of Apollo and is in an area we had not previously drilled. That's not infill – that's discovery. What strikes us about this set of results is the consistency. Four holes, drilled in alternating directions across the upper Apollo, all hit mineralization. The vein sets are continuous, they're predictable, and the high-grade cores keep appearing exactly where the geology says they should. SDDSC200 also intersected a vein set we hadn't seen before, which is a reminder that Apollo is still expanding with further drilling.
Mr Hudson said the antimony story was "equally compelling … at a time when the Western world is urgently reassessing its antimony supply chain, these grades matter''.
Mr Hudson said there were another 46 drill holes pending results and 10 drill rigs on site.
Antimony in focus
The Australian Government, in January, said that as part of its proposed $1.2 billion critical minerals reserve, the government would be stockpiling minerals, including antimony.
Southern Cross said at the time it was well-placed to feed into this need for the mineral.
As they said:
The company welcomes this landmark initiative which recognizes the strategic importance of securing domestic antimony supply for Australia and its allies. Sunday Creek, located just 60km north of Melbourne in Victoria, represents one of the most significant undeveloped gold-antimony deposits in the Western world and stands ready to support Australia's critical minerals security objectives.
South Cross Gold Consolidated shares were 1.8% lower in early trade on Monday at $9.03.
