Golden Dragon consolidates prime WA goldfield

Golden Dragon Mining has doubled down on its gold bet in Western Australia’s fertile Murchison Goldfields by consolidating 600 square kilometres of prime, underexplored tenure into a single, centralised landholding known as the Cue gold project.

Notably, the broader district is an infrastructure-rich, tier one mining jurisdiction that has played host to more than 35 million ounces of gold,

The land consolidation has brought together previously fragmented tenures into a single, coherent exploration package along strike from some serious gold pedigree.

Westgold Resources’ massive Big Bell gold mine, with approximately 2.3 million ounces lurking within its combined resource base, sits just down the road, while the historic Cuddingwarra mining centre, also held by Westgold, has produced about 780,000 ounces of gold at 2.1 grams per tonne.

Prior to Golden Dragon’s consolidation efforts, the ground had been carved up by multiple explorers, leaving a patchwork of small, isolated tenements. Exploration was often piecemeal, with programs stopping at boundaries and lacking a consistent, district-wide approach.

Golden Dragon believes it has a winning strategy. By tidying up the land position first, the company has been able to use modern drilling and exploration technologies to cast a more refined and focused exploration net across the grounds.

The new approach appears to be paying some early dividends, too, with some old prospects that contain significant historic intersections suddenly vying for attention.

For example, a cluster of results at one of the company’s prospects called Bering Bore previously hit 8m at 7.7 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 12m at 5.4g/t gold and 8m at 5.8g/t gold within a small mining lease. Intriguingly, the drill hole collars from these holes finished at the old tenement boundary, potentially leaving significant upside on the table.

With the adjacent lease now in Golden Dragon’s hands as part of its consolidation, the company now has a contiguous land package to run down, allowing it to follow up the results and other extensional drill targets more fully.

Since listing in October last year, Golden Dragon has hit the ground running, completing its first RC drill program at Bering Bore, with drilling assays now due in February.

The company also has a pipeline of drill-ready targets at other historical prospects across Coodardy. These include Curtis Find, where past drilling returned 3m at 11.2g/t gold and Piston, which delivered a broader 24m intersection grading 0.9g/t gold. Many of the prospects have seen only sporadic follow-up and remain open in multiple directions and at depth.

The Cue project sits just sixty kilometres north-west of the town of Cue and is surrounded by operating processing plants, including Westgold’s Tuckabianna Mill and Ramelius’ Mount Magnet operations. Should Golden Dragon hit pay dirt, the potential for a lucrative toll treatment agreement with nearby operators highlights a practical commercialisation pathway for the company.

Major shear zones in the area appear to be strongly influencing the distribution of gold mineralisation within the Murchison Goldfield. The Big Bell and Cuddingwarra gold mines sit adjacent to the northeast-southwest striking Big Bell shear and the Cuddingwarra shear, highlighting the importance of both of these regional structures.

Both the Big Bell and Cuddingwarra shears extend more than sixty kilometres based on aerial magnetic images and run through the western portion of the Golden Dragon tenement package. Given both structures are linked to gold mineralisation along their strike lengths, they offer clear and compelling opportunities for the company, with strong potential for new gold discoveries on largely underexplored ground.

The Emily Wells shear is a third regionally significant shear zone that transects the eastern half of the tenements. Prospects such as Stockyard East and Jeffery Well are proximal to the shear and hold untapped potential as illustrated by historical intersections including 8m at 5.77g/t gold and 5m grading 5.0g/t gold.

Notably, substantial portions of Coodardy appear to be concealed beneath transported cover of varying thicknesses, including extensive and often deep palaeo drainage channels. These underexplored zones commonly sit above easily weathered major shear structures, presenting further opportunity for new discoveries.

Adding to the project’s credentials, two volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VMS) horizons, known as the Wattagee and Emily Well horizons, bisect Golden Dragon’s eastern tenements at Coodardy.

Mapping by Esso Exploration and Eastmet Minerals Ltd in the early 1970’s discovered several gossanous outcrops rich in zinc and copper near Wattagee Well, 30km north of Cue.

Esso hit significant grades of zinc-copper sulphide mineralisation in diamond drilling, returning a best result of 3m grading 7.5 per cent zinc and 0.42 per cent copper from 228m. Another hole jagged 3m grading 4.68 per cent zinc and 0.7 per cent copper from 164m, with anomalous gold evident in assays.

These historic base metals intersections provide a significant exploration opportunity for Golden Dragon, as VMS deposits can typically occur in clusters, containing extensions down dip and along strike within distinct volcanic stratigraphic horizons.

While the historic drilling focused on base metals, the geological setting near a major shear zone and the sporadic gold recorded are considered prospective for orogenic gold mineralisation.

To further diversify its commodity pipeline, Golden Dragon has acquired the Stella Range project, a single granted exploration licence located in the northeast corner of WA’s Eastern Goldfields. Considered prospective for primary nickel sulphide mineralisation, secondary exploration targets there also include nickel laterite, gold, rare earth elements and platinum group elements.

Several years ago, St George Mining and BHP conducted geophysical surveys and drilling over the Irwin Hills-Stella Range greenstone belt. A follow up drilling program unearthed disseminated and veinlet nickel-sulphide mineralisation in favourable komatiitic rock types.

At the time, BHP believed the komatiites were compositionally similar to those of the fertile Agnew Wiluna belt, which hosts world-class sulphide nickel deposits such as BHP’s Mt Keith and Perseverance mines.

Golden Dragon has reviewed this work and identified multiple nickel-sulphide and PGE targets warranting follow-up exploration.

With the rods already turning and assays pending, Golden Dragon has quickly shifted from land consolidator to active explorer in one of Australia’s most proven gold belts.

Backed by district-scale ground that appears to have strong geologically controlling structures and multiple walk-up targets, the company now has the ingredients and logistical advantages to chase a meaningful discovery - and potentially fast-track any success in a region built on gold.

And with the gold price seemingly unstoppable, up more than 25 per cent this month to its current lofty price of US$5564 (A$7869) per ounce, the company is letting the reins out at just the right time.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au