Siren Gold has made significant progress at its Queen Charlotte antimony and gold project in New Zealand, uncovering multiple mineralised outcrops and historical workings during its initial field program. The company's exploration has revealed substantial potential along an extensive shear zone on the South Island.
Major Structural Discovery
The company has successfully traced what's known as the Endeavour shear zone, now confirmed to stretch over 12 kilometres in length and reaching up to 100 metres wide. This dominant structure hosts mineralised potential across an 8-kilometre strike length, with both hangingwall and footwall reefs offering parallel opportunities that could effectively double the project's prospects.
Located approximately 120 kilometres east of Siren's flagship Sams Creek project, Queen Charlotte contains three known historical mining centres: Endeavour Inlet, Endeavour East, and the old Resolution Bay mine. The area has a rich mining history dating back to 1872 when antimony ore was first discovered.
Historical Significance and Current Sampling
The Endeavour Inlet mine previously stood as New Zealand's largest antimony producer during its operational peak between 1880 and the mid-1890s. Historical records indicate extraordinary grades, with miners extracting ore averaging 40% stibnite and some individual samples reaching an impressive 96% stibnite content.
Siren has now collected more than 100 samples across various outcrops and old mine workings, with laboratory assay results currently awaited. Company management expresses particular interest in the gold potential, as historical mining operations primarily focused on high-grade antimony extraction, often overlooking the gold component.
Promising Mineralisation Results
The Maria Reef, situated on the western footwall edge of the Endeavour shear zone, shows particularly strong mineralisation. A 2015 channel sample across the Maria Reef returned 5.4 metres at 5.4 grams per tonne gold. Subsequent rock chip sampling revealed gold values ranging from 1.5g/t to 4g/t gold across a 1.2-kilometre zone extending up the hill.
The reef's true thickness varies from two to six metres, comprising quartz veins, quartz breccia, and sheared schist. Siren has managed to locate and channel sample six separate outcrops of the Maria Reef, while also identifying and sampling the Skyline Reef hanging wall lode, which contains a visible 0.5-metre-thick stibnite vein.
At the Endeavour East mine, located three kilometres south, sampling confirmed the presence of massive stibnite and arsenopyrite-bearing quartz, extending the proven mineralised strike to approximately five kilometres.
Broken Project Portfolio Strength
While Queen Charlotte shows promising early signs, Siren's primary focus remains the advanced Sams Creek deposit to the west. This large-scale intrusion-related gold system currently hosts a resource of 824,000 ounces grading 2.8g/t gold, with additional resource drilling underway.
Previous intersections at Sams Creek include 20 metres at 6g/t gold and 48 metres at 1.6g/t gold from a 50-metre wide porphyry dyke that remains open for at least one kilometre down dip. High-grade rock chip sampling suggests additional potential along seven kilometres of strike from other porphyry dykes.
The company's portfolio also includes the Langdons project, another gold and antimony-bearing shear related system in New Zealand showing several coherent soil anomalies indicating undiscovered mineralised structures.
Favourable Market Conditions
With both gold and antimony trading at record highs, Siren appears well-positioned to capitalise on current market sentiment. The company is adequately funded for extensional drilling at Sams Creek, which should generate a steady stream of news flow in coming months.
New Zealand's mining industry continues as a solid contributor to the national economy, undergoing significant transformation under the government's Minerals Strategy that emphasises critical minerals like antimony and gold.
Siren Gold now has a genuine opportunity to secure a mining license at Sams Creek. If early results from Queen Charlotte prove positive when drilling commences, the company could potentially be pursuing two separate mining licenses in New Zealand's mineral-rich landscape.
