NSM Strikes High-Grade Gold at Darlington: Is a Mariners Repeat Emerging?

Exploration Highlights at Darlington

North Stawell Minerals (ASX:NSM) has delivered a compelling update from its March 2025 diamond drilling campaign in Victoria’s prolific Stawell Corridor. The company’s five-hole program, spanning 1,546 metres, focused on two key targets: Darlington and Wildwood. The standout result came from Darlington, where drill hole NSD057 intersected a high-grade gold zone of 2.3 metres at 29.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 108.2 metres, including a remarkable 0.8 metres at 82.3 g/t Au.

This intercept is particularly significant because it exhibits strong geological, structural, and mineralisation similarities to the historic Mariners Lodes at Stawell, a renowned high-grade gold system that produced nearly one million ounces at an average grade of 30 g/t Au. The Darlington discovery is open in all directions, suggesting the potential for a repeat of this multi-million-ounce mineralisation style.

Wildwood: Geological Promise Amid Lower Grades

At Wildwood, three drill holes tested the Clontarf and Maslin targets. While the drilling intersected the expected lithologies and alteration typical of Stawell-type mineralisation, gold grades were modest, with the best result being 0.95 metres at 2.76 g/t Au from 259.3 metres at Maslin. Importantly, these holes were drilled outside the existing Wildwood Mineral Resource, which currently stands at 87,300 ounces at 2.4 g/t Au, and the mineralisation remains open at depth and along strike.

Wildwood’s shallow mineralisation and proximity to the operating Stawell Gold Mine processing plant position it as a potential satellite deposit. The company’s ongoing work aims to expand the resource by targeting flank-style mineralisation, which could add significant tonnage.

CSIRO Collaboration Enhances Targeting

North Stawell Minerals has also advanced its exploration strategy through a collaborative project with CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency. This initiative models deep, fault-controlled fluid pathways that may have channelled gold-bearing fluids during mineralisation events. By integrating fault slip tendency calculations, fluid flow numerical models, and structural data, the project refines the targeting of prospective basalt margins beneath cover, a critical factor in the Stawell-type gold system.

The CSIRO modelling complements NSM’s mineral systems approach, helping to prioritise targets across its extensive 500 km² tenement portfolio and improve the efficiency of future drilling campaigns.

Financial Discipline and Forward Outlook

Despite ongoing capital market headwinds, NSM maintains a disciplined financial approach, ending the quarter with $470,000 in cash. The company prioritises “putting money in the ground” to advance its exploration pipeline, which includes secondary targets such as Caledonia, Forsaken, and Lubeck Tip, all showing promising geological signatures for Stawell-type mineralisation.

Interim CEO Campbell Olsen emphasised the company’s commitment to unlocking the full potential of its tenements and delivering shareholder value through systematic exploration and resource growth.