Southern Gold has picked up a tantalisingly rich historic gold-silver mine in South Korea, with recent sampling producing some bonanza gold and silver grades.
In an update to the ASX this week, the gold explorer and producer reported it had been granted a 100% stake in two new tenements over the historic Deokon gold mine in central South Korea.
Detailed ground work by Southern Gold early in 2018 identified Deokon as one of several very prospective epithermal gold-silver targets with potential for a mineralised system that is much larger than has been historically recognised.
Sampling of mullock adjacent to and on exposed veins within the Main Mine and the Shin Adit prospects returned nine samples with more than 1 g/t gold and a peak of 13.3 g/t and 2,130 g/t silver.
Historical underground channel sampling produced results that included 0.5m @ 59.3 g/t gold and 8,879 g/t silver, 0.6m @ 29.3 g/t gold and 3,820 g/t silver and 0.6m @28.5 g/t gold and 7,485 g/t silver.
Southern Gold Managing Director, Simon Mitchell, said: “Deokon represents a Tier 1 exploration target for Southern Gold, with large footprint, spectacular gold-silver grades and easy drill and development access.”
“It is also part of the early stages of our Project Generation work and, if the broader Deokon system is as good as we anticipate, we are confident that we will add more similar high potential projects to our portfolio. With some of these samples going 6 gold ounces equivalent to the tonne, it doesn’t take a lot of tonnes to achieve a very profitable deposit. Deokon is therefore a very important and valuable addition to our asset base.”
South Korean Mines Department records between 1958 and 1980 indicate minimum production totals of 37,706 oz of gold and 2,358,045 oz of silver.
Deokon is one of a number of high-grade, historic gold-silver mines in South Korea now controlled by Southern. The mines were abandoned when gold prices were less than US$200/oz and they were therefore poorly explored and developed.
Southern said that historical drilling at Deokon had not effectively tested the down-dip or along-strike potential of the Main Mine mineralisation. In fact, 3D modelling shows that most of the drilling did not intersect the vein trend.
The company believes the potential for along-strike and down-dip extensions to high-grade gold and silver mineralisation is highly encouraging, with potential for down-dip extensions of several hundred metres.
The next step for the project will be additional rock chip and representative grab sampling, followed by multiple diamond drill holes to test for down-dip and along-strike extensions. This initial programme will be completed over the coming months, pending land access and permitting.
Deokon is about 90kms south of the Gubong project, which Southern plans to bring back into production, possibly as soon as the end of next year with its UK-based partner Bluebird Merchant Ventures.
By Matt Birney
