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Penny Taylor
Great Southern Mining has punched into high-grade gold within fresh rock at Golden Boulder, part of its 100 per cent-owned Duketon gold project near Laverton in Western Australia, extending mineralisation up to 45m down-dip as a major drilling campaign probes the scale beneath its shallow footprint.
First assays cover 2436m from 19 holes of a planned 14,000m reverse circulation (RC) program, with the drilling concentrated on the northern 450-metre section of Golden Boulder’s 3.5km Main Line trend, one of three parallel mineralised corridors alongside its Eastern Line and Ogilvies prospects. Another 48 holes, representing 5428m of completed drilling from Main Line and Eastern Line, await assays.
The standout 10-metre hit ran 2.62 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 20m, including 2m at 10.72g/t and 1m at 2.20g/t. Another hole returned 8m at 2.24g/t from 102m, including 2m at 7.20g/t, while 7m at 2.45g/t from 41m contained 1m at 6.91g/t.
Deeper intervals included 3m at 3.07g/t from 105m, 3m at 3.32g/t from 121m and 4m at 1.85g/t from 145m, including 1m at 6.62g/t. All except one of the 19 holes returned mineralised intercepts above 0.7g/t, with high grades occurring in both the weathered oxide zone near surface and the underlying fresh rock. Reported lengths are downhole, with true widths yet to be confirmed.
‘There is potential for a much larger gold system that could support multiple open-pit operations, all within 20km of operational gold processing facilities.’
Great Southern Mining managing director Matthew Keane
Golden Boulder carries a rich goldfield pedigree. More than 50 historical workings pepper the area across a 3.7km strike, with records showing 1915 tonnes of ore were mined at 28.6g/t for 1761 gold ounces between 1900 and 1955. More recently, 2025 drilling struck 5m at 14.6g/t gold from 41m, including 1m at 70.9g/t, adding modern high-grade smoke to the old workings.
The latest results appear to provide a glimpse beneath those shallower historical and modern results, extending mineralisation up to 45m down-dip. However, few holes have reached beyond 150m below surface, leaving much of Golden Boulder’s depth potential still untested.
Drilling has now moved to the southern reaches of Main Line, where drill lines from the 2025 campaign were widely spaced up to 400m apart.
Great Southern Mining managing director Matthew Keane said: “These results support our view that Golden Boulder and the wider Duketon Gold Project have potential for significant scale. The latest results highlight the propensity for high-grades both in the shallow oxide zone and continuing at depth into fresh rock.”
Modelling and interpretation at Golden Boulder are underway to assess continuity between multiple stacked quartz-vein lodes carrying pyrite and arsenopyrite within basalt and minor dolerite. Great Southern will assess the growing RC dataset before planning follow-up drilling, with a resource estimate also possible subject to interpretation of the results.
In parallel with the action at Golden Boulder, another batch of assays is waiting in the wings from Amy Clarke, Great Southern’s emerging gold discovery just 3km to the northeast. Results from its first RC program of 18 holes totalling 2248m are expected in coming weeks, with mineralisation already defined across a 4.7km strike.
Adding further intrigue is Golden Boulder’s prime geological address. It sits on the same interpreted structure as Regis Resources’ greater-than-2-million-ounce Rosemont deposit 26km away, where mineralisation extends beyond 700m below surface. Great Southern’s wider Laverton ground also sits between Regis’ 12-million-ounce-plus Duketon camp and Genesis Minerals’ 6-million-ounce Laverton tenure, while Keane says operational gold processing facilities lie within 20km.
Further afield, diamond drilling has wrapped up at Mt Dillon’s massive gold-copper target within Great Southern’s Edinburgh Park project in northern Queensland. Core logging and processing are now underway. The company has a deal with mining giant Gold Fields, which can earn up to 75 per cent by sole-funding $15M of exploration. The arrangement allows Great Southern to retain exposure to the Queensland project while focusing its own resources on its WA gold portfolio.
With drilling ongoing at Golden Boulder and a torrent of assays in the lab from two separate large-scale systems, Great Southern now has plenty of shots on goal as it looks to prove whether Duketon has the makings of an emerging gold camp in one of WA’s most prolific gold districts.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
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