- High grade epizonal gold projects in two
large 100% owned tenement packages and one large group of tenement
applications within the state of Victoria, Australia
- All three projects have historical high-grade, hard rock
gold production but are under-drilled and under-explored
- 1386 square km land package including a large property
immediately south of and contiguous with Kirkland Lake Gold's Fosterville high-grade gold tenements
VANCOUVER, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Fosterville
South Exploration Ltd. ("Fosterville South" or the
"Company", FSX:TSX Venture) is pleased to announce its common
shares will commence trading on the TSX Venture Exchange on
Tuesday, April 14th, 2020
under the symbol "FSX".
Fosterville South has two large, 100% owned, high-grade epizonal
gold projects and one large group of tenement applications in the
state of Victoria, Australia,
including a 600 sq. km property immediately to the south of and
within the same geological framework that hosts Kirkland Lake Gold's Fosterville tenements.
All three of Fosterville South's properties (Lauriston,
Providence and Golden Mountain)
have had historical gold production from hard rock sources despite
limited modern exploration and drilling. This premier land package
was assembled over a multi-year period by one of Fosterville
South's founders and Chief Operating Officer, Rex Motton, P.Geo. Mr. Motton was born in the
area and spent his teenage years prospecting throughout the belt,
prior to obtaining his geology degree and working for decades
internationally in the exploration business. Mr. Motton
assembled the land package that now forms Fosterville South's
assets, starting to acquire this ground in early 2017.
Fosterville South completed financing privately, supported by
top institutional investors and mining professionals, and did not
raise funds concurrent with this go public event. Under the
Company's last completed financing, Mr. Eric Sprott, through 2176423 Ontario Ltd, a
corporation which is beneficially owned by him, holds 2,500,000
shares and is one of the largest shareholders of Fosterville
South.
Fosterville South is well funded with over $6 million in cash to carry out an extensive
drill program on numerous high-grade gold prospects on its
projects. Our experienced exploration team has been working
on the projects doing field work including soil geochemistry,
sampling, geological mapping and compilation of historic data in
anticipation of the upcoming drilling program.
Lauriston Gold Project
Fosterville South's Lauriston Gold Project is a large land
holding, within the same stratigraphic and structural setting as
the Fosterville gold mine. The
tenement has an extensive history of hard rock and alluvial gold
production but limited modern exploration.
The Lauriston property is south of and adjoining Kirkland Lake's Fosterville Gold Mine.
The Fosterville Gold Mine reported a measured and indicated
resource estimate of 14,800,000 tonnes at 4.4 g/t gold for
2,110,000 ounces of gold and an inferred resource estimate of
10,300,000 tonnes at 5.5 g/t gold for 1,830,000 ounces of
gold. The project produced 619,366 ounces of gold in
2019. The mineralization at the Fosterville Mine is not
necessarily indicative of mineralization on the Lauriston
Project.
Lauriston has a similar geological and structural setting and is
on the same regional trend as the Fosterville Gold Project and
occurs along the western margin of the Selwyn Block. Bendigo style
saddle and trough reefs occur within the property as well as
subvertical shear zone style gold and quartz vein mineralization
which occasionally have epizonal characteristics.
The Fosterville South property has metallogenic indications of
Fosterville style epizonal gold
deposits, but has not been explored for these types of deposits,
particularly as they were not recognized as to their significance
until recently.
Gold mineralization is hosted by Ordovician slates and
sandstones in association with felsic dykes, either with quartz
veins or with disseminated arsenopyrite – pyrite ± stibnite.
The Lauriston district contains several recognized goldfields,
including the Taradale, Malmsbury, Lauriston and Blackwood East
gold fields that have produced over 233,000 ounces at a grade of
20.7 g/t Au until around 1914. Some minor production also occurred
during the depression of the 1930s.
Mine
|
Location
|
Total
Tonnes
(t)
|
Total Au
(oz)
|
Mined
depth
maximum
(m)
|
Grade (Au
g/t)
|
Modern
Exploration
|
Russell's
Reefs
|
Lauriston
|
44,923
|
33,403
|
330
|
22.8
|
Sparse drilling on
the Northern Extension
|
Energetic
Reefs
|
Lauriston
|
54,667
|
31,626
|
114
|
17.7
|
No
drilling
|
United Kingdom
Reefs
|
Taradale
|
77,006
|
26,518
|
113
|
10.5
|
Two drill
holes
|
Wyndham
Reefs
|
Lauriston
|
32,927
|
11,747
|
88
|
10.9
|
No
drilling
|
Tommy Dodd
|
Malmsbury
|
18,099
|
6,968
|
84
|
11.8
|
Three drill
holes
|
Table
1 Significant gold producing mines at Lauriston
|
* The production noted above was obtained from
State of Victoria Mining Surveyors and Registrar's quarterly
reports from 1864 to 1891 and annual reports issued
thereafter. All of the production occurred within the
Lauriston Property.
The Company has allocated budget of approximately CDN$2.1 million aimed at initial exploration of
several prospects held within Fosterville South's Lauriston
tenement, with the majority of the Lauriston budget dedicated to
drilling during the next 12 months. The focus of the Company is to
search within the property for gold deposits analogous in style and
type to the Fosterville gold mine
further north of Lauriston. These epizonal deposits are associated
with the Devonian Tabberabberan orogeny and have a characteristic
Au-As-Sb metallogenic signature.
Over the past two months, the Company has been working at
Lauriston doing infill and extension soil geochemistry, in
preparation for drilling. In particular, the New Trojan, Comet and
O'Connell's prospects have yielded encouraging antimony and arsenic
XRF soil results and drill programs are being designed.
Providence Gold Project
Fosterville South has applied for two large exploration
applications cover 650km2 that it calls the Providence project. Primary epizonal
gold deposits are found throughout the Providence project.
Gold mineralization is hosted by Siluro-Devonian sediments as
well as in association with felsic dykes, either with quartz veins
or with disseminated arsenopyrite – pyrite ± stibnite.
These primary gold deposits are structurally related to the
Selwyn Block, within the Costerfield Domain and are associated with
the Mid-Devonian Tabberabberan orogeny. A key feature of these
deposits is that they have a characteristic metallogenic signature
of Au-As-Sb mineralization, which act as a vector for finding the
bonanza grade found at Fosterville.
The Providence property
contains several recognized goldfields, including the Reedy Creek,
Yea, Ghin Ghin and Alexandra gold
fields, within which there are several high-grade gold
producers:
- Luckie Reefs at Alexandra with
36,000 oz at 39g/t Au to 122m
depth
- Langridge's at Reedy Creek with 20,620 oz at 56 g/t Au
- Doyle's mine at Reedy Creek with 13,431 oz at 51 g/t Au
- Providence Reefs at Yea with 8,585oz at 33.6 g/t Au
The production noted above was obtained from State of
Victoria Mining Surveyors and Registrar's quarterly reports from
1864 to 1891 and annual reports issued thereafter. All of the
production occurred within the Providence Property.
Within the Providence district,
the Reedy Creek goldfield produced 63,558t for 48,944 oz Au at a
grade of 23.6g/t Au which is 68% of the gold produced from the
whole division. Most of this goldfield lies within the Providence project. Other goldfields such as
Sunday Creek, Yea and Ghin Ghin also
contributed to the division's production. The Luckie Reefs at
Alexandra is the largest producing
prospect within the eastern part of the project. About 5km of
strike of the Luckie Reefs corridor occurs within the project,
including the main producing mines.
The Reedy Creek gold field occurs on a northwest striking
corridor of which 16.5km occurs within Fosterville South's tenement
application. At the northwest end of this corridor BHP drilled an
intrusion related gold and antimony mineralized breccia pipe. This
prospect is excised from the tenement but illustrates the
prospective nature of the corridor linking these two styles of
mineralization.
The only significant drilling to have taken place within the
project is from the Providence
prospect at Yea and at various parts of the Ghin Ghin goldfield,
which were undertaken by Perseverance Corporation Ltd in the 1990s
in the search for shallow open pit oxide deposits.
Initial encouraging drilling results were achieved at both these
prospect areas with:
- Ghin Ghin drilling yielding:
-
- GGRC03 drill hole 38m @ 1.2 g/t
Au
- GGRC07 drill hole 10m @ 2.9 g/t
Au
- Providence drilling
yielding:
-
- PP06 drill hole 8m @ 7.0 g/t Au
from 34m
- PP13 drill hole 20m @ 0.85 g/t Au
from 4m
- PP16 drill hole 2m @ 40.8 g/t Au
from 48m
The drilling results noted above was obtained from reports
filed by Perseverance Corporation Ltd. with the State of Victoria under exploration licenses
that they held.
The applications that comprise the Providence project are applications only and
Fosterville South has not been granted the exploration licenses
comprising the Providence project
at this time.
Tallangalook (Golden Mountain) Gold Project
The granted exploration licence consists of 136km2 holds are
variety of gold deposits, with the Golden Mountain area with
intrusion related gold deposits and epizonal orogenic gold –
stibnite deposits such as the Heyfield Reef and Star of the Glen
Reefs.
The gold deposits are hosted by hornfels in the aureole of the
Strathbogie Granite in the north of the tenement or are located
within the Siluro-Devonian sediments further to the south. The
largest producer within the Tallangalook goldfield was the Golden
Mountain mine with a recorded yield of at least 268kg Au from open
cut workings, and over 4040kg of alluvial and eluvial gold from the
surrounding area. Smaller prospects occur nearby and most of the
alluvium in the creeks had been extensively mined for gold. There
are several deposit groupings of various types within the
tenement:
- Various intrusion related disseminated gold prospects in the
metamorphic aureole:
-
- The western Black Ore and Morning Star group (1889-1895): 1.7kg
Au (55 ozs) from 759t
- The central Mead/Golden Mountain Group (1878-1901): 268kg
(8615ozs) from 90208t
- The eastern Perseverance & Black Charley group (1880s):
trial crushing of 4.2 ozs from 128t
- Gold – stibnite epizonal prospects:
-
- Star of the Glen Group (1890-1894): 2349ozs at 18.0g/t Au from
3996 tons to 46m.
- Heyfield Reef – Unknown production of stibnite gold
concentrate.
The production noted above was obtained from J.B. Griffiths
Report in 1976 from Department of Manufacturing and Industry
Development Expired Exploration Reports File. All of the
above deposits are located within the Golden Mountain
Property.
Reconnaissance rock chip sampling at Heyfield Reef and Star of
the Glen has been undertaken in order to assess the potential for
high-grade mineralization. The main adit dump at the Heyfield reef
yielded a quartz grab sample with 20.1 g/t Au. Star of the Glen
also reported several high-grade gold samples within the central
part of the historic working and with a peak of 152 g/t Au.
Fosterville South has a budget of approximately $1.9 million dedicated to exploration work, with
an emphasis on drilling, at Golden Mountain in the upcoming
year.
Conclusions
Fosterville South has a highly experienced management team and
Board, with both proven strong discovery track records and capital
markets expertise. While the capital markets and public company
administration components of Fosterville South are based in
Canada, the key team members in
terms of operations and exploration are Australian.
Board, Management and Key Advisors
James Hutton, Chairman of the
Board of Directors
Bryan Slusarchuk, Chief Executive Officer and Director
Rex Motton, Chief Operating
Officer and Director
Jonathan Richards, Chief
Financial Officer
John Lewins, Director
Robert McMorran, Director
Charles Hethey, Director
Doug Kirwin, Advisor
On April 7, 2020, Jonathan Richards was appointed as Chief
Financial Officer of Fosterville South to replace the Robert
McMorran who is retiring as Chief Financial Officder, but who will
remain a Director. Fosterville South thanks Mr. McMorran for
all of his efforts to assist Fosterville South in its going public
transaction. Mr. Richards has over a decade of resource-focused
accounting and finance experience. He has accumulated extensive
experience with Toronto Stock Exchange and venture-listed
companies, as well as numerous private companies throughout the
world. Mr. Richards holds a bachelor's degree in
management studies with first-class honours from the University of
Waikato, New Zealand, started his
career with KPMG, and is a member of the Institute of Chartered
Accountants of British Columbia as
well as Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
At the commencement of trading, Fosterville South will have
44,982,751 shares issued, no warrants, and 4,495,000 incentive
stock options. Fosterville South has no debt and approximately
$6.1 million in cash.
On April 7, 2020, the Company has
entered into 12 month investor relations agreements with Highland
Contact (controlled by Adam Ross),
based in Canada, and with Clarkham
Capital (controlled by Sebastian
Korbach) based in England. Highland Contact will be
paid CAD $7,000 per month and has
been granted 425,000 incentive stock options with a term of 5 years
and an exercise price of $0.40.
Highland will coordinate all North American investor relations for
the company including creation of materials, advertising as well as
handling all incoming investor relations communications for a
period of twelve months. Highland Contact is a corporate
communications firm that assists public and private companies with
corporate communication and to develop a capital markets
strategy. Except for 125,000 shares held by Mr. Ross and the
above noted stock options, Highland Contact and its controls
persons do not own any securities, directly or indirectly, of
Fosterville South. Clarkham Capital will be paid CAD $12,500 per month and will be used for creation
of marketing materials, advertising and investor communications in
Europe for a period of twelve
months. Clarkham Capital is a UK based company that will
assists issuers with European investor corporate communications.
Neither Clarkham Capital nor its control persons own any
securities, directly or indirectly, of Fosterville South.
These investor relations agreements are subject to the approval
of the TSX Venture Exchange.
Qualified Person
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed,
verified and approved by Rex Motton,
P. Geo., COO and Director of Fosterville South, a qualified person
as defined by NI 43-101. Historical records were verified by
reviewing annual reports from previous owners of the licenses by
the Qualified Person.
On behalf of the Company
Bryan Slusarchuk
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this news release contains
forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the
date of this news release. These statements reflect management's
current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are
not guarantees of future performance. Fosterville South cautions
that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and
that actual performance may be affected by many material factors,
many of which are beyond their respective control. Such factors
include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to
Fosterville South's limited operating history, its proposed
exploration and development activities on is Lauriston and Golden
Mountain Properties and the need to comply with environmental and
governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future
events, conditions and results may differ materially from the
estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or
implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required
under applicable securities legislation, Fosterville South does not
undertake to publicly update or revise forward-looking
information.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services
Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange)
accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this
release.
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SOURCE Fosterville South Exploration Ltd.