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Friday, December 30, 2005
HARDWORKING Golden Cross Resources has received an early anniversary present as it approaches 10 years in the exploration game. Chris Cann - RESOURCESTOCKS*

After almost a decade of exploration that has turned up numerous deposits that haven't quite made the grade, it appears Golden Cross Resources may have finally put its hand on the company-maker it has been craving.

Golden Cross listed in 1996 and has accumulated 14 properties – mainly across historical ground in New South Wales with a handful of Northern Territory tenements – many of which have proved positive for various mineral endowments but have either been too small or have coincided with uneconomic commodity prices.

In 2005, however, the tide seems to have turned with the drilling of the Copper Hill gold-copper project in NSW returning results good enough to prompt managing director David Timms to compare it to the Cadia Hill project at the same stage, which had a feasibility resource of 352 million tonnes grading 0.63 grams per tonne gold and 0.17% copper.

An RC hole from the most recent drill program at Copper Hill spanned 164m grading 0.9gpt gold and 0.62% copper from surface, which when coupled with previous drilling has indicated the width of the high-grade mineralisation in the new Saddle area of Copper Hill to be about 100m.

Another hole from the same program hit Saddle mineralisation in the upper part of the hole for 48m at 0.33gpt gold and 0.69% copper.

The results have prompted Golden Cross to predict a large resource estimate would be announced in early 2006 to be followed by scoping then feasibility studies.

Timms, who has been at the helm since the company's inception, said it was extremely satisfying to finally have an economic deposit under the belt.

"It's obvious, it's big and it's a company maker – no doubt in my mind," he said.

Timms said Golden Cross would be aiming to drill out a similar resource to Cadia Hill and would then look to repeat the find along the 18km strike length under the company's control that runs along the Lachlan Ford Belt.

"From the 18km strike there is every indication that there will be other mineralised intrusions," he said.

"Similarly to Cadia Hill, once we got started we found several more deposits along strike and now boast resource of 31Moz gold plus 3.9Mt of copper.

"And as most people know, porphyry deposits like this provide most of the world's copper so they are huge systems and are the making of companies like us."

Though possible production is still probably two years away, Timms said the presence of chalcocite in some holes indicated that some parts of the mineralised body may be easily heap leached before reverting to a more conventional flotation facility.

Once a cash flow is established at Copper Hill, Golden Cross will have a chance to re-evaluate some of its other projects and possibly bring them on stream to take advantage of strong metal prices across the board.

The company will also receive cash flow from gold royalties out of Polymetals' high-grade Mt Boppy mine, which was once NSW's largest gold producer.

Timms believes there is also strong potential for further discoveries around Mt Boppy, particularly within the Canbelego licence, with mid-year drilling returning intersections including 18m grading 6.78gpt gold from 10m.

At the 550sq km area of Broken Hill tenements within Golden Cross' NSW holdings, which has been a major
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focus for the company in the past, there remain more than a dozen targets that warrant attention.

Timms believes the ground is prospective for a variety of metals and its reputation as a long-standing gold province could work in Golden Cross' favour.

He said though the perception was that the area has been thoroughly explored, the truth was that only a very small percentage of historical drill holes had penetrated to any substantial depth, adding value to the company's holding.

Completing the Golden Cross holding is the recently acquired NT ground position covering more than 5000sq km of the McArthur Basin, north of the McArthur River zinc mine and the Merlin diamond project. Golden Cross' NT exploration will focus on the search for diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes.

Golden Cross has a vast and diverse portfolio of properties and minerals to examine, but for the time being the company is content to get its teeth stuck into Copper Hill – its just desserts for 10 years of hard slog