Unlocking Drummond Basin gold promise

The Drummond Basin is shaping up to be a new El Dorado. At least that’s according to junior miners in the area south of Charters Towers where exploration is being ramped up. One of the most prominent juniors exploring in the Drummond Basin is GBM Resources which is on a capital raising drive to expand exploration opportunities in a bid to build a 2 Moz resource. Related: Related: GBM drilling beefs up Twin Hills gold outlook GBM holds about 1.6 Moz of gold in JORC resources across the Mount Coolon, Yandan and Twin Hills project areas. This year will see an expanded drilling program, aiming to define 2-3 Moz of gold and support GBM’s transition into a mid-tier Australian gold company. Far East Gold has three Australian projects under its wing in the region including Blue Grass Creek, Mount Clark West and Hill212. Far East Gold's Hill212 drill camp site. Hill212 and Blue Grass Creek sit alongside the Mount Coolon lease and share the resource profile, according to Far East Gold chairman Paul Walker. “I think people are seeing Drummond Basin as an emerging area for good, large intercepts of gold, which is coming out of the projects near to ours, the Mount Coolon and Yandan projects, particularly, and Twin Hills,” Mr Walker said. “Some of the results that are coming out of the Drummond Basin recently have been quite remarkable. You’re seeing gold grades of a couple grams a tonne for over 200m in length in core samples that are coming out of there. “So consistently really good, decent grade, large intercepts are being found in the Drummond Basin for gold. “And when you combine that with the accessibility of really good infrastructure for mine development and operation, I think the Drummond Basin is a bit of a hidden gem in terms of gold operations.” Related: Related: Far East Gold reveals Drummond Basin plans This was backed up with weekly reporting in Miner Deck that has seen Drummond Basin projects rank in the Top 10 gold intercepts nationally, Mr Walker said. “… Quite regularly GBM’s intercepts in the Drummond Basin are sitting in the top 10 gold intercepts nationwide in terms of the length of intercept and the grade,” he said. “When you multiply them together, they end up with some remarkable results. So yeah, the Drummond Basin I think, is emerging as a destination, but it's not there yet. I think it's somewhat overlooked.” Far East Gold have contracted Eagle Drilling out of Charters Towers to be on site from next month. The company was enthusiastic about results from the drill program complementing that coming from more established companies in the area like GBM, Mr Walker said. “What we're seeing in their resource estimate is very similar characteristics in terms of the nature of the vein system and the depth of the vein system that we're seeing from the research that we've done on our Hill 212 project “We're hopeful that we'll get something similar when we actually get through our drilling program, which is meant to start in August. The first confirmed drill location at Hill 212. "We've engaged civil works contractors to come and upgrade tracks and cut drill pads. We've also just engaged the local Jangga people to do the cultural heritage survey for the proposed drill program. “We've had crews up there upgrading the camp for the drill contractors when they're on site. And we've had our geo team out on-site doing ground truthing of the geophysics work that was done to make sure that we're happy with the drill locations. “The only thing that's left to do is get the drill contractors up on site and with the weather that we've been having in Queensland of late, that may be the delayed a few weeks. “We're just keeping an eye on how that's impacting availability of our drill crews.”

Unlocking Drummond Basin gold promise

Industry Queensland

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