Great Southern Mining Prepares for Major Drilling Campaign at Mon Ami Gold Project
Great Southern Mining is gearing up for an extensive drilling program at its Mon Ami gold project located near Laverton in Western Australia. The company has identified multiple high-priority targets aimed at extending the existing resource and uncovering deeper, high-grade gold zones at this mine-ready prospect.
A detailed technical review has been initiated to accelerate exploration efforts, with the goal of boosting the current deposit of 55,500 ounces, which grades at a solid 1.11 grams per tonne (g/t) gold. According to the company, mineralisation at Mon Ami remains open both along strike and at depth, with previous drilling largely confined to the known resource area, leaving significant untested ground.
Drilling Schedule and Key Targets
Drilling operations are scheduled to commence in April, focusing on shallow repeats and depth extensions at the deposit. This work will run concurrently with programs at the nearby Duketon gold project. Recent aircore drilling has already indicated the potential for parallel lodes offset from the primary structure, particularly in the Blanc Platt area, where a result of 2 metres at 1.86g/t gold from 20 metres was recorded.
This finding aligns with a series of historic shallow intercepts that suggest an emerging parallel zone, including 2m at 4.8g/t gold from 70m, 2m at 3.23g/t gold from 100m, and wider intervals such as 11m at 0.64g/t gold from 40m. Follow-up drilling will aim to trace these surface expressions down plunge along the Barnicoat Shear Zone.
Focus on Deeper Opportunities and Analogues
Deeper exploration is a key priority, as limited drilling has been conducted below 150 metres to date. Some of the best intercepts have come from greater depths, including 10m at 2.7g/t gold from 241m and a 21-metre hit grading 1.0 g/t gold from 255m. The company views the Ida H deposit, located 8 kilometres north along the same Barnicoat Shear and owned by Genesis Minerals, as the closest analogue for Mon Ami's depth potential.
Ida H was historically one of the highest-grade producers in the Laverton district, yielding 229,900 tonnes at 22.6 g/t gold for 170,650 ounces from underground operations in the early 1900s. Its quartz-sulphide veins, which pinch and swell with a northern plunge within the shear zone, mirror features observed at Mon Ami.
Project Infrastructure and Logistics
Mineralisation at Mon Ami extends across at least 700 metres of strike in a north-south vertical lode associated with the Barnicoat Shear Zone. The project benefits from a granted mining licence and a special licence for a haulage route to the Elora-Mount Weld sealed road. Its strategic location places Mon Ami within a 50-kilometre trucking radius of several operating and planned gold mills, including the Granny Smith facility just 10 kilometres away.
In the near term, planning for April's resource expansion is the main focus, with potential development studies in the Laverton district likely to follow. Great Southern Mining managing director Matthew Keane stated, "We have successfully achieved all desired outcomes, including significant strike extensions to known mineralisation, improving continuity of mineralisation in the north of the prospect and defining new mineralisation in previously undrilled areas in the south. Importantly, drilling to date is still very shallow."
Expansion into Queensland Gold Project
On the opposite side of the continent, work programs are also intensifying at Great Southern's large Queensland gold project at Edinburgh Park. This 1,560-square-kilometre joint venture with Gold Fields involves the gold mining giant spending $15 million on Great Southern's ground to earn up to a 75 percent interest by funding exploration.
The company initially identified over 25 high-priority targets across the extensive tenement package, focusing on potential large epithermal and intrusion-related gold systems, as well as porphyry-related gold-copper opportunities. Drilling is set to resume after the north Queensland wet season, likely in March, with initial plans calling for at least two deep diamond holes to test the core of a geophysical anomaly and areas beneath it.
With strong logistics at Mon Ami and resource growth drilling now on the horizon, Great Southern's dual Australian gold stories could be looking at cash flows from toll-treating sooner than anticipated.
