St George drilling for gold at Ascalon
THE DRILL SERGEANT: St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) has been awarded a drilling grant by the West Australian Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS).
The company said the EIS dollars would be spent on gold exploration at its 100 per cent-owned East Laverton project, in particular on the new Ascalon gold prospect.
St George has identified a number of prospective targets in an under‐explored region containing the gold discoveries at Tropicana (+8 million ounces) and Gruyere (+5 million ounces).
“The support of the Western Australian Government is recognition of the innovative exploration work we are undertaking and the significant gold potential in the under‐explored East Laverton area,” St George Mining executive chairman John Prineas said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
Initial drilling under the WA grant will test the Ascalon gold prospect with work scheduled to start in early 2016 as part of a major gold‐focused drilling program targeting a number gold targets on the East Laverton roject.
The greenstone belts at East Laverton are also adjacent to the Yamarna belt where the Gruyere gold deposit was discovered by Gold Road Resources (ASX: GOR) in 2013.
More recently, Montezuma Mining (ASX: MZM) announced a new greenfields discovery on the Yamarna belt.
St George considers these gold discoveries highlight the unrealised potential in this area of the North Eastern Goldfields and back its commitment to an escalation of gold exploration at its East Laverton project which, together with the company’s nickel sulphide exploration, will provide a diversified commodity exposure.
St George believes it has also identified gold potential at the Atlas prospect, which will be drilled for the first time later this month.
This target is located to the south‐west of the main East Laverton tenements.
St George completed ground gravity and soil geochemical surveys over the prospect area in 2014.
The gravity data identified a large area of higher density which was co‐incident with a strong magnetic response.
Website: www.stgm.com.au