Ausmex believes it is sitting on ‘an absolute bonanza’ at its Golden Mile project near Cloncurry.
Managing director Matt Morgan says the ground is riddled with high-grade workings, abandoned since the late 1930s.
“There is a string of nine former mines, plus unmarked ones,” he said.
“We’re just focusing on a small area and it is proving to be super high grade.
“This has the potential to be a huge province.
“The most exciting part is that underneath the whole area at depth is a large geophysical anomaly that Exco Resources identified in 2012 as an IOCG potential source.”
The high-grade gold shoots at Golden Mile and nearby Mt Freda appeared to stem from this large, deep source – which had the potential to be a world-class deposit, he said.
“We think we are sitting on an absolute bonanza,” Mr Morgan said. “It will probably take us another 12 months to drill out.
“Everywhere we are drilling is gold, gold, gold. We have 8km of this gold mineralised structure on the surface.”
Ausmex came to north-west Queensland with its purchase of a majority interest in the Mt Freda and Gilded Rose gold projects and some exploration tenements.
Mt Freda included a low-grade ore stockpile which Round Oak Minerals wanted to feed its newly refurbished Cloncurry processing plant during commissioning work.
In return, it paid Ausmex $2.5 million and made it an 80 per cent beneficiary of two EPM sub-blocks containing what it has since dubbed the Golden Mile project.
“We believed there was potential to expand Mt Freda and these sub-blocks adjoin the mining lease,” Mr Morgan said.
“Then we did some exploration work and it’s riddled with old workings and gold. It’s amazing.
“We got out and walked and every ridgeline, every hill has got historic workings and there are tools that people have just walked away and left near these shafts.
“We went through and sampled on the surface and got gold results of 30-40g/tonne plus, and copper and cobalt.
“We started drilling them and they are good, high-grade gold mines and there are so many of them and they go for kilometres and kilometres.
“It’s like a dream come true for a junior.”
Mr Morgan said Round Oak had already constructed a haul road in the area for its operations.
Golden Mile gold would be processed at the Round Oak Minerals’ Cloncurry processing facilities, providing an opportunity for quick cash flow with minimum start-up costs for Ausmex.
Mr Morgan said Ausmex had been conducting targeted drilling of nine reefs and planned to carry out resource drilling in 2019 to prove up a JORC estimate.
“In the New Year we’ll be gearing up again. We will need four or five rigs,” he said.
The push comes amid a bullish environment for gold and Mr Morgan said the sort of success being experienced at Golden Mile could help reinvigorate exploration investment in the area.
“It’s a big one,” he said.
“I think it could be a game changer for Cloncurry and the north-west.”
New drilling results released this week can be viewed HERE.
