Golden Dragon stakes prime WA gold ground beside Big Bell giant

Golden Dragon Mining has made a strategic move to bolster its position in Western Australia’s prolifically gold-productive Murchison goldfields, lodging a new exploration licence application adjacent to the northeastern margin of Westgold’s revered 2.3-million-ounce Big Bell gold mine, 26km northwest of the historic town of Cue.

The new 28-square-kilometre application will extend Golden Dragon’s exposure to the Big Bell Shear zone by an additional 6.5 km northward along strike of the shear zone.

Once granted, and alongside an existing exploration licence application, the company’s contiguous landholding in the area will increase to an estimated 619 square kilometres.

The Cue project sits in the Archean Watagee Hill Greenstone Belt, a Tier-1 gold province that hosts a string of significant deposits. Golden Dragon’s ground takes in major regional structures including the Big Bell Shear and the Cuddingwarra Shear zones, both of which are considered highly prospective but largely underexplored in some areas due to transported surface cover.

The company’s move to pick up ground right on the fence line of the giant Big Bell operation speaks volumes about its ambitions in the region.

Golden Dragon Mining managing director Simon Buswell-Smith said: “This new tenement application is a highly strategic addition to our portfolio, located right on the doorstep of one of the region’s largest gold producers. The new application extends our control of the Big Bell Shear Zone and positions Golden Dragon with one of the most compelling exploration footprints in the Murchison.”

While the new licence application is being processed, the company has a full plate of targets to get stuck into across its existing tenure. Recent drilling at its Coodardy prospect, 22km northeast of the historic Big Bell mine, has confirmed the presence of coherent, high-grade shoots.

A recent follow-up drill program in May returned a headline-grabbing hit of 12m at 6.5 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from just 44m, which included a richer 4-metre section grading an impressive 17.6g/t gold.

That result lines up neatly with a previous intercept from the company’s previously identified high-grade intercept that delivered 8m at 10.82g/t gold from 25m, including a spectacular 4m at 21.37g/t gold. Management says the mineralisation at Coodardy has been defined over about 500m of strike and remains open to the north and south. Adding another layer of intrigue is a newly identified north-east mineralised orientation at Coodardy that is yet to feel the drill bit.

Elsewhere within the Cue project, the