In 2021, Mawson consolidated its Australian assets into Southern Cross Gold (SXG) with the intention to list SXG on the ASX. After raising A$2.7m in a private pre-IPO funding round, it raised a further A$9.1m in its IPO capital raise and commenced trading on the ASX on May 16, 2022 as a separate and independent company. Mawson is the largest shareholder of SXG, holding 51% of SXG shares as a strategic investment (93,750,000 shares). Mawson is escrowed for a period of two years from the time of listing.
In Victoria, SXG controls three of the nine historic Fosterville-style (shallow-orogenic epizonal) exploration projects within 471 sq km tenure. These include Sunday Creek (100%) plus Redcastle and Whroo (earning up to 70% JVs) and a right of first refusal over 3,300 square kilometre tenement package. All three projects occur in Ordovician to Devonian sediments intruded by late Devonian granites and mafic dykes and have evidence of high-level ‘epizonal’ gold-antimony (Au-Sb) mineralization.
The Sunday Creek project is the most advanced in the portfolio, with a highlight intersection of 119.2 m @ 3.9 g/t AuEq, and the project has an immediate 1,200 long x 800 m deep strike being drilled.
Past work on the projects in Victoria includes extensive workings from the 1850s to early 1900s, and more recent exploration for near-surface oxide mineralization including drilling in and near old workings. Exploration has recently been focused on testing for extensions to depth in these epizonal fields.
In Queensland, SXG holds seven granted exploration permits on the south-eastern edge of the Proterozoic Mt Isa Block, which is host to several world-class lead-zinc-silver (Pb-Zn-Ag) and copper-gold (Cu-Au) deposits. The project strategy here is to drill test geophysical targets, a combination of gravity and magnetic anomalies, under 200 m or more of young cover. One drill hole has been completed, with anomalous copper associated with retrograde potassic alteration.
For more information on Southern Cross Gold Ltd, please visit its website here.