"New Zealand mining is back open for business," said Resources Minister Shane Jones December 14, 2023
Dominant 1000km2 tenement package in Reefton Goldfield with 511koz at 3.4g/t. Reefton Goldfields endowment produced >2moz underground as well as >8moz alluvial Same high grade epizonal gold with antimony in same geology as Fosterville and Costerfield Sams Creek 7km long porphyry dyke with 824koz at 2.8g/t. Big gold porphyry potential
Siren Gold (SNG:ASX) has total of 1.3moz at 3.3g/t at AU$6/oz market value
Substantial growth potential to 2.5-3.0moz by end of 2025.
Key Points
- SNG is building on its dominant tenement position in high grade Reefton goldfield
- SNG Reefton tenements have >2moz historic production and endowments
- Potential is for multi-million oz additional resources here over time
- Current total Reefton resources now 511kozAuEq at 3.4g/t from:
- Alexander River
- Big River
- Auld Creek
- Cumberland (Supreme)
- Current focus is on a 12 km (9km net) high grade gold-antimony vein system at Auld Creek-Cumberland
- Several historic mining lines of lode with 1000-2000m strikes
- Most targets open down plunge, some with more than 1500m lengths
- Region already has >2moz historic production and resource endowments
- Multi-million oz potential
- Auld Creek has Fraternal and Bonanza Shoots
- Maiden 132koz Inferred JORC Resource at 7.1gAuEq/t declared in Fraternal Shoot
- More to come from Auld Creek in 2024
- Cumberland tenements activity to increase in 2024
- Maiden resource of 103kozAu at Supreme deposit
- Shallow high grade mines within 2000m long and 600m wide Happy Valley Shear Zone all open at depth
- Lyell tenements in north have >6000m gold-As anomalies
- Discovery of Mt Lyell North likely to deliver resources in 2024
- Expectations of significant resource growth in these Reefton tenements before end 2025
- Sams Creek has 824koz resource at 2.8g/t and multi million oz potential
- Total resources currently 1.33mozAuEq
- New Government in New Zealand will "fast track" mining
- Market cap A$8m on 159m shares at A$0.05
- Cash position A$1.6m at September 30, 2023
- At an extremely level low of valuation at A$6/oz
- This is certainly one for the Christmas Gift List
- This is long but you need to understand this one!
Siren Gold is a South Island NZ-focused exploration company with key dominant tenement holdings in the Reefton Goldfields and at the Sams Creek gold porphyry deposit.
Siren has steadily built up its gold resources through a strong technical approach to drilling and trenching and to the astute acquisition of additional tenements in the hilly historic goldfields at Reefton.
The type of deep shoots and long reef structures within the Reefton system allow rapid build-up of inferred resources whilst the 7km long 50m wide porphyry dyke at Sams Creek requires infill and along strike and downdip confirmation drilling.
Reefton Goldfields Tenements
The Reefton deposits are shear hosted shoots developed over 100km of strike that can outcrop and also be followed down to as much as 1500m below surface.
The geology of the Reefton Goldfields is very similar in age, rock types and structures to the Victorian Goldfields.
In Victoria, two distinctive sub-types of orogenic gold mineralisation are recognised.
- The deeper (6-12kms) mesothermal deposits that formed almost all the significant gold deposits in the Bendigo and Stawell zones and
- the shallower epizonal zone including the Fosterville and Costerfield mines that have valuable antimony co-product.
The latter gold mineralizing event in Victoria is characterised by pyrite and the stibnite (antimony sulphide) associated with gold which is very similar to the Reefton style mineralisation.
The Reefton Goldfield grades were high and historic mining averaged 15.8g/t Au although antimony was considered a deleterious component.
Siren-owned old mines in its tenements are highlighted here in this production table in blue and the largest producer, Blackwater, is owned by Federation Mining and its 700koz at 23g/t resource is currently being developed.
The Blackwater mine was a single quartz reef that was mined over 1000m of strike and over 700m in depth with the current resource being an extension of that same single quartz vein down to 1500m depth.
SNG has prospects with current resources and some have potential of a similar strike and deep running shoots that could substantially increase SNG's total resources.
The major Reefton structure extends over 100km from beyond the Lyell field in the north to well beyond the Blackwater mine in the south.
Siren has a large encircling tenement package and tenement applications around Federation Mining's very small mining lease (yellow).
A Canadian-based group, Reefton Goldfields, seeking a TSX listing owns the blue tenements.
This activity is likely to produce some corporate consolidation in the coming years.
The acquisition and consolidation of these tenements into SNG's control has been a priority with an aim to confirm large resources to eventually feed into a single regional mill.
Siren has indicated that exploration over the next 12 months will focus on exploring gold-antimony targets within the Reefton structures at Auld Creek-Cumberland and at Lyell and also on increasing gold resources at Sams Creek.
SNG is confident its program will continue to grow the resource base which has increased rapidly since listing with gains to come at Reefton from excellent field work at Auld Creek-Cumberland and at Lyell.
Sams Creek will also add to resources in 2024 and 2025
Golden Point (Auld Creek) and Cumberland Tenements
Siren's recent work in the Golden Point tenement on identifying high grade gold and stibnite mineralisation along the Auld Creek – Cumberland line of strike has been quite successful and has recently announced that maiden Mineral Resource Estimate at Auld Creek of 132koz at7.1g/t.
The Golden Point tenement is located south of Reefton and situated between the historic Globe Progress mine (418koz at12.2g/t) and the Crushington group of mines (515koz at 16.3g/t).
OceanaGold Ltd mined a further 600koz at ~2g/t from an open cut at Globe Progress to give total production here of 1.6moz at 10g/t and resources to take it to almost 2moz endowment to date.
Cumberland is further to the south on the other side of the Globe Progress mine and SNG has already delineated a 103koz gold resource at Supreme and has the Happy Valley Shear Zone .
This region has already produced over 2moz and the work detailed here in these tenements with over 9km of the Reefton Structure.
Large scale gold soil anomalies and historic mines extending over 1000-2000m at a time suggests that an even larger resource endowment potential is being unveiled.
Seven open cut and underground coal mines are in this well-known mining district.
This Reefton gold-antimony structure is a dominant feature here connecting the Auld Creek Prospect in the north through to Globe Progress, onto the Cumberland prospect south of this mine and on to SNG's Big River historic mine.
This feature has a strike length of ~12km with 9km within SNG's tenements and the remaining 3km within the Globe Progress reserve area.
This structure has high grade epizonal gold and widespread antimony in rocks and tectonic activity that parallels the contemporaneous Victorian Goldfields with the Fosterville and Costerfield mines.
The gold resource potential is substantial and the presence of high grade co-product antimony makes it even more valuable.
Auld Creek
At Auld Creek, a large arsenic anomaly has been delineated over 700m N-S and extends about 100m E-W with a sub parallel feature to the west.
Siren's trenching and soil sampling has identified the Reefton Structure within this as an anticlinal fault feature over 700m along the Fraternal Shoot vein including Fraternal North.
The western anomaly has a sub parallel 300m Bonanza splay vein which also has a further Bonanza Shoot East splay.
These Fraternal and Bonanza Shoots have `heights' over >100m each and thickness of 1-6m and are open down plunge.
The entire strike length of the gold-arsenic anomaly is over 700m and over 300m wide in places.
An initial 132koz at 7.1g/t resource has already been established here on a very small footprint so the potential is for well over 1moz here.
Fraternal Shoot
Substantial historic drilling at Fraternal has already taken place by Macrae's Mining and OceanaGold and this has provided SNG with a base to rapidly determine an MRE here.
The trench and drilling results show that in general gold and antimony mineralisation occurs in a fault zone on the western limb of in an anticline near its axial plane hinge.
The gold grade shows consistency between the drillholes and trenches (i.e. 3- 5g/t).
However, when the mineralised fault is closer to the anticline axis it appears to have higher-grade antimony suggesting that the antimony mineralisation is a later stage event.
Over 20 diamond holes have been completed by SNG with 17 historic diamond holes drilled between 1996 and 2013 by McCraes Mining and Oceanagold.
These and the trenching have enabled a of 132koz at 7.1 g/t AuEq resource to be defined.
The highest grades in the deposit are generally associated with strong antimony mineralisation.
The deepest drillhole to date intersected gold mineralisation but is still less than 100m below surface.
Mineralisation here remains open at depth and along strike giving the potential for a much larger resource.
Historic results on the Fraternal Shoot from Drill Pad 14 included very encouraging results of:-
- RDD087 - 35m at 11.0g/t AuEq
- RDD086 - 6m at 13.8g/t AuEq
- RDD085 - 7m at 10.6g/t AuEq
SNG has carried out follow up diamond drilling on the Fraternal Shoot from Pad 19.
ACDDH004 intersected the Bonanza vein as well as the Fraternal vein with:
- Fraternal
- 20.8m at12g/t AuEq incl
- 4.6m at 19.9g/t AuEq
- Bonanza
- 2.6m at 4.3g/t Au
ACDDH004 intersects top of Bonanza Shoot and lower in Fraternal Shoot - earlier RDD086 intersects lower 6m at13.8g/tAuEq.
Additional holes provided confirmatory mineralisation continuity.
ACDDH005
- 17.9m at2.6g/tAuEq incl:-
- 3.9m at 3.6g/t AuEq
- 10m at 3.1g/tAuEq
ACDDH006
- Awaiting assays
Pad 16
ACDDH007
- 26m at 2.9g/t
The drilling of ACDDH0011 resulted in the mineralisation in the Bonanza East Shoot extending into the Fraternal Shoot.
ACDDH011
- 5.0m at 20.6g/t Aueq
- 1.7m at 6.8g/tAuEq
The picture has developed to show two Fraternal shoots with >100m height and as much as 200m of true strike and both have open plunge to the south.
Plunge could be several hundred metres and would provide a substantial resource.
The Fraternal Shoot definition has been extended to around 175m below the surface and remains open at depth.
Gold shoots in the Reefton Goldfield shoots typically extend down plunge for a significant distance.
The Alexander River shoots extend down plunge for 1.3kms and are still open at depth and the Blackwater Shoots extend for at least 2.0kms.
The initial strategy was to test shoots at Bonanza East and Bonanza that have been largely identified by mapping, soil geochemistry and trenching with shallow diamond drilling.
Now that the strike extent and plunge of the shoots has been identified, drilling on all four shoots can be extended down plunge.
Successful down plunge drilling here in these styles of shoots can add rapidly to inferred oz.
Bonanza Shoot
The arsenic anomaly along the Fraternal Shoot extends to the west (yellow) and picks up sub parallel splays which have been confirmed by trenching and an earlier drill hole and a much earlier shaft.
The Bonanza Shoot has the single drill hole and the Bonanza East Shoot has the shaft and exploration drive that intersected the reef which was reported to be 2.4m thick and average 23g/t Au.
SNG has also found large blocks of stibnite on the mullock heap, indicating that the Bonanza reef does indeed contain high-grade gold and antimony.
Two SNG trenches, BZTR002 (3.4m at 4.8g/t AuEq) and BZTR011 (2.2m at 7.0g/t AuEq), indicate that the mineralisation is dipping to the west with a south plunge similar to Fraternal.
The Bonanza East Shoot, however, appears to plunge to the north.
SNG has completed trenches and five drillholes to test for down plunge extension to the shoot.
- ACDDH011 5.1m at 4.1g/t Au, 7.0% Sb or 5.1m at 20.6g/t AuEq
- ACDDH013 4.5m at 1.6g/t Au, 1.7% Sb or 4.5m at 5.5g/t AuEq,
- ACDDH014 2.7m at 2.8g/t Au, 1.1% Sb or 2.7m at 5.3g/t AuEq,
- ACDDH004 2.6m at 4.3g/t Au, 0.0% Sb or 2.6m at 4.3g/t AuEq,
- ACDDH012 5.0m at 2.1g/t Au, 0.0% Sb or 5.0m at 2.1g/t AuEq,
- BZTR001 6.0m at 2.5g/t Au, 1.6% Sb or 6.0m at 6.2g/t AuEq, and
- BZTR008 6.0m at 4.9g/t Au, 0.3% Sb or 6.0m at 5.6g/t AuEq.
Additional drillholes are planned to extend the shoot further to the north and to test for depth extensions and give the Bonanza Shoot significant resource potential.
Cumberland Tenements
Cumberland is to the South of Globe Progress and has been best represented by a series of small high grade mines along the main Happy Valley Shear Zone.
In addition and offset to the HVSZ, SNG already has a 103koz at 2.7g/t Inferred Resource at Supreme from earlier drilling by McCrae's Mining and OceanaGold in a deposit very similar to the adjacent Globe Progress mine that produced 1.1moz at 6g/t.
The region with the Globe-Progress (1.1moz), Crushington (515koz), Supreme (103koz) and other resources is already almost 2moz (+ any alluvials) and is likely to be as large again.
SNG will be focussing on this Cumberland tenement in 2024 with intentions of increasing resources.
Historic Production is a total of 98,000 tonnes recorded for 44koz at 14.2g/t Au with some small very high grade workings.
Supreme gold deposit
Supreme's gold mineralisation is a similar style to the Globe-Progress deposit and has high-grade quartz breccia and disseminated sulphides.
The Supreme prospect contains three sub-parallel mineralised shoots that have been traced down dip for approximately 200m and are open at depth.
The shoots plunge moderately to the SE, with an average thickness of approximately 12m.
SNG is intending to increase the resource at Supreme in 2024.
Happy Valley Shear Zone
The HVSZ within the Cumberland tenement extends for over 3kms from the recently mined Souvenir (within the Globe Progress mine) to the A1 prospect in the south.
This area comprises of a number of small shallow historic mines targeting high-grade quartz veins.
The shear zone is more than 500m wide and is considerably underexplored so needs to be put in the context of the Globe-Progress mine with 400koz at 14.2g/t underground (2-3km north) and 700koz at 2g/t open cut (1-2km north).
The Crushington group of mines (515koz at 16.3g/t) were only 2-3km north of Globe progress as well.
This is already a multimillion oz resource region.
Historic production was low but grades were high with combined estimate of 27koz at 27g/t Au.
This HVSZ has potential for a substantial resource to be delineated.
The mineralisation within this 600m wide shear zone is interpreted to be contained in a series of steeply south dipping shoots and all are open at depth.
Significant drillholes along the HVSZ include;
- 27m at 74.9g/t Au (Gallant hole GAL001 – clearly not true width),
- 9m at 6.1g/t Au (Inkerman West hole 97RDD022),
- 3.1m at 9.4g/t Au (Happy Valley Shear unmined hole 87DDMJ2), and
- 6m at 17.6g/t Au (Happy Valley Shear unmined hole HSV003
Details of selected working provide a good picture of the mineralisation.
The West Inkerman mine lies approximately 300m to the west of the Inkerman mine which is also to the west of the Supreme resource within this 500-600m wide HVSZ.
Gold mineralisation at Inkerman is primarily contained within lenticular quartz lodes with similar styles and grades to the Blackwater mine.
The reef extended for 100m on surface and was mined down to 97m below surface with vein thickness ranging from 0.3 to 2.1m.
Drillhole 97RDD022 was drilled below the old mine workings and intersected 9m at 6.1g/t Au from 107m, indicating that the mineralisation remains open at depth.
The Gallant prospect contains a shear hosted 1m-5m thick quartz vein that extends for over 300m and dips steeply east and west.
Diamond hole GLA001 was drilled to the west and appears to have drilled obliquely down a steeply west dipping reef with a very impressive 27m at 74.9g/t Au result which includes 1m at 1,911g/t Au.
This 27m mineralised zone was dominated by a quartz reef with visible gold and disseminated arsenopyrite mineralisation in the hanging wall.
The true thickness of the mineralised zone is estimated to be around 5m.
Detailed soil sampling and trenching will be utilised to try and expose the Galant Reef to determine its orientation and true thickness.
The mineralisation south of Galant extends for around 1.5kms from Sir Francis Drake to Exchange.
The shear zone dips to the west and has a true width of between 1m and 6.5m.
Significant historic drillholes include:
- GLA004 3.3m at 5.1g/t Au,
- 87DDMJ0 26.5m at 4.0g/t Au and,
- HVS00 34.2m at 17.6g/t Au
Gold mineralisation is associated with disseminated arsenopyrite in sheared argillite, breccias and minor grey quartz veins.
The Golden Lead – A1 mineralisation is at the southern end of the HVSZ.
A mineralised zone is up to 27m wide and containing mostly narrow quartz stockwork veinlets within a crushed sandstone unit.
Very little mapping has taken place since CRAE first explored the area and mapped and sampled the underground workings in the 1980's.
The broad arsenic soil anomaly is up to 1km wide and open to the south and east under cover and is a key target.
Targets within the Golden Point and Cumberland tenements have real potential of multi-million oz deposits to reflect earlier underground mining which had generally ceased in the 1940s.
Other Siren Gold Activity in the Reefton Goldfields
Big River (historic 136koz at 34.1g/t Au) and Alexander River(41koz at 26.4g/t Au) are in the main Reefton Goldfield and their tenements surround the Blackwater Mine (740koz at 14.6g/t).
SNG has already recorded resources in these southern Reefton tenements with 170koz at 5.0g/t Au at Alexander River and 105 at 3.9g/t at Big River.
- Big River
Production via the shaft was from Shoots 1, 2, 3 and 4 produced its 136koz at 34.1g/t.
The A2 Shoot was not mined and a potential shoot exists at Prima Donna in the SE.
SNG has recorded very good intersections in Shoot 4 and the A2 Shoot and all Shoots are open at depth.
An initial MRE is for 105koz at 3.94g/t.
Deeper drilling at Big River could add substantially to resources in 2024.
- Big River South
SNG has carried out substantial soil sampling here around the Big River mine and further to the south.
Exploration activity will be following up in 2024.
- Alexander River
This mine was operated in the McVicar East Shoot to recover 41koz at 26.4g/t Au.
SNG has carried out drilling that has resulted in a substantial resource of 170koz at 5.0g/t in the Bull East Shoot, the McVicar deeps and in the Bruno East shoot.
The McVicar deeps provided a particularly high grade intersection in AXDDH084 of:-
- 2.5m at 358g/tAu from 275m including
- 0.6m at 1,460g/t Au.
Resources are 170koz at 5.0g/t.
The shoots extend 1300m down plunge and shows many similarities to the Federation Mining's Blackwater (now named Snowy River) Mine.
700koz at 23g/t resource at the Snowy River Mine and 2000m down plunge length.
Alexander River could prove to be similar in tonnage size to the Snowy River Mine although the grade is so far much lower.
Lyell Project
In addition to the continuum of the Reefton Structure from Auld Creek to Big River in the south, SNG also has the Lyell project in the far north of the Reefton Structure about 40km north of Reefton.
The Alpine United Mine has been the important local gold centre in this tenement but SNG has identified a 6000m gold anomaly linking old workings.
One 1000m section of the anomaly stood out and with followup trenching SNG has made a new discovery at Mt Lyell North.
Mt Lyell North shoots showed strong similarities to SNG's Alexander River structure.
The Lyell Project is likely to add substantial resource ozs in 2024.
The key gold deposit is identified in the centre of the permit at the historic Alpine United mine that produced ~80koz at ~17g/t between 1874-1912.
Several other historic workings are noted to the north including
- United Victory
- Mt Lyell
- Break of Day
SNG has also discovered a key strong 1km gold anomaly in an unmined area at Mt Lyell North and has confirmed gold presence in trenches that returned:-
- LYT001 7.0m at 13.8g/t incl 1m intervals at 25g/t
- LYT002 8.0m at 6.3g/t incl 1m intervals as high as 29.7g/t
- LYT003 2.5m at 3.2g/t
- LYT004 1.0m at 1.9g/t
- LYT011 1.0m at 6.0g/t
- LYT012 2.0m at 3.1g/t
In addition SNG has carried out trenching to the north toward the Victory mine with excellent results.
- LYT005 1.7m at 11.5g/t
- LYT008 1.1m at 36.0g/t
- LYT009 3.0m at 19.1g/t
- LYT004 2.4m at 3.2g/t
SNG is interpreting the connection to Mt Lyell North as a 700m shoot similar to that at Alpine United with potential down plunge extent of 400m.
This is likely to soon become a resource in 2024.
The main structure in the permit is the Alpine Anticline which extends along the length of the permit and is associated with quartz veining with arsenopyrite.
SNG has carried out geological and structural mapping with soil sampling, rock chip sampling and trenching over the 6kms strike extent of permit.
Assays from multiple rock chip samples of both quartz veining and arsenopyrite mineralised sediments returned anomalous gold mineralisation.
The soil sampling to date has confirmed a strong arsenic soil anomaly over continuous 5 km zone along the Alpine Anticline.
A 4km long gold anomaly with a NW trend intersects a syncline around the United Victory mine in the north and whilst is offset by an apparent fault, carries down through the Break of Day mine and potentially intersects the anticline around the Alpine United mine in the south.
These may represent mineralised shoots similar to those seen at Alexander River.
The Alpine United mine shoot plunged ~45o to the north and was mined down to 500m below the surface with 80koz at 17g/t Au recovered.
Trenching as noted above provided some very encouraging results over almost 700m with true widths of up to around 5m.
There is a 400m elevation difference between the outcropping of Shoots 1 and 2 in the SE and the United Victory Mine shoot in syncline in the NW.
This long section suggests a very substantial zone of mineralisation could exist here and has strong similarities to the Alexander River structures..
SNG will be drilling this into 2024.
New Zealand Permitting
New Zealand has had a clear permitting process that has been slow but recent local precedents confirm that the system has worked.
The change of government in New Zealand has changed this process with emphasis on "fast tracking" mining.
See video link here.
Sams Creek (EP 40338 SNG 81.9% OceanaGold 18.1%, EP 54454 SNG 100%)
Much more to come on this beauty.
Very large exploration upside potential here.
ICL - at the bottom
Significant outperformance coming here.
Head the markets, not the commentators.
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