Black Horse Mining finds hidden gold structure behind Sister Rose backfill

Hidden Sister Rose workings return high-grade gold

Black Horse Mining Ltd (ASX:BHL) has found more than a geological curiosity behind the backfill of the Sister Rose Adit at its Mt Egerton Gold Project in Victoria. Rehabilitation work exposed a previously unrecorded 16-metre crosscut and a further 10-metre drive into a quartz-rich backfilled zone, where underground face sampling returned 0.60 metres at 10.92 grams per tonne of gold and 0.70 metres at 10.67 g/t.

The crosscut exposes a west-dipping fault that historical miners did not develop, with quartz present along both walls and tensional spur veins mainly in the hanging wall. Black Horse’s preliminary model suggests the structure aligns with an earlier reported intersection of 2 metres at 5.13 g/t gold in hole RSE003. The company’s August high-grade zone discovery had already identified the same west-dipping fault style at Sister Rose.

Drilling moves from preparation to field testing

The results remain exploration-stage observations rather than a mineral resource estimate. They come from preliminary face sampling across underground workings, so the key unanswered issue is whether the mineralisation continues beyond the sampled exposures with sufficient width, grade and continuity to matter economically.

That question is now being put to the drill bit. A silenced, track-mounted, chuck-driven rig was mobilised to the Egerton laydown yard in September, with heavy rain delaying the start of drilling until October. The equipment was selected to reduce noise impacts on the surrounding community.

During the December quarter, Black Horse plans to combine drilling with detailed geological mapping, wall XRF surveys and updated surveying of the underground workings. Further mapping and sampling will focus on the Sister Rose crosscut, the drive to its south and the rise backfill, while the company updates its fault model.

Cash runway remains measured as exploration accelerates

Black Horse ended September with A$4.41 million in cash, down from A$5.23 million three months earlier. Quarterly net cash used in operating activities was A$807,000, including A$579,000 on exploration and evaluation, while the company reported no substantive mining production or development activity.

On the reported quarter’s spending rate, the company calculated approximately 5.46 quarters of available funding and had no disclosed financing facilities. Exploration expenditure since admission totalled A$1.757 million against a 24-month prospectus allocation of A$4 million. Separately, Chief Financial Officer Amber Rivamonte resigned in July because of family commitments; the announcement did not identify a replacement.