North Stawell Minerals Details High-Grade Gold Strategy in Victoria’s Golden Triangle
Key Takeaways
- NSM's best Darlington intercept — 2.3m at 29.18 g/t Au including 0.8m at 82.3 g/t Au — matches the grade range of the historic Mariners Lodes (28–30 g/t Au) that produced up to 0.95 Moz Au at the Stawell Gold Mine.
- A maiden blind hole at Darlington West (NSD058), drilled purely on geophysics with no prior drilling, returned three separate gold intercepts, validating NSM's targeting methodology beneath sedimentary cover.
- The Darlington high-grade trend is confirmed over 70m of strike along an 8km corridor and remains open to the south and at depth, with follow-up drilling planned for the IP anomaly at Darlington West.
- NSM's only defined Mineral Resource at Wildwood stands at 87,300 oz Au at 2.4 g/t Au (JORC 2012), with mineralisation open in multiple directions and poorly tested below 150m — IP geophysics is planned to generate new depth targets.
- NSM holds 445 km² of tenure in Victoria's Golden Triangle, applying the proven geological model of the adjacent 5.3 Moz Stawell Gold Mine to largely untested strike extensions masked by thin sedimentary cover.
Inside Victoria’s golden triangle: what NSM presented at Discoveries in the Tasmanides 2026
At the Discoveries in the Tasmanides conference (9–11 September 2026), North Stawell Minerals (ASX: NSM) outlined the geological controls underpinning its exploration strategy in the Stawell Corridor, Victoria. The corridor spans 170km of strike and 10km in width within Victoria’s Golden Triangle, a region that has produced more than 70 Moz Au across multiple zones. NSM holds 445 km² of tenure along the northerly strike extension of the Stawell Gold Mine (5.3 Moz Au), applying that mine’s proven geological model to find the next major gold system beneath largely untested cover.
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The Stawell model — using a 5.3 Moz mine as an exploration blueprint
NSM’s exploration strategy is built around two deposit models derived directly from the Stawell Gold Mine’s geology: “Mariners-type” and “Stawell-type” mineralisation.
Mariners-type deposits are high-grade, narrow brecciated quartz-carbonate vein systems that occur above basalt slabs. The historic Mariners Lodes produced 0.78–0.95 Moz Au at 28–30 g/t Au, making this one of the most attractive exploration target-types in Victoria.
Stawell-type mineralisation occurs on basalt margins rather than above them. It is characterised by sulphides (pyrrhotite, pyrite, and arsenopyrite), silica, and chlorite alteration, with gold occurring in dilation zones associated with structural irregularities between sediments and basalt.
Both models organise around the Magdala Basalt, which the presentation described as an immovable structural “buttress.” Critically, NSM can locate these basalts beneath cover using reprocessed magnetics and airborne gravity geophysics. This matters because 85% of NSM’s tenements are masked by a thin blanket of unmineralised sedimentary cover that would otherwise conceal prospective geology entirely.
The key takeaway for investors is that NSM is not speculating on unexplored ground without a framework. It is applying a time-tested, multi-million-ounce geological template — proven at a producing mine — to underexplored strike extensions of the same system.
Darlington and Wildwood — where the model is delivering results
Darlington: high-grade intercepts along an 8 km trend
Darlington is a high-grade drill target that demonstrates Mariners-type potential. The target sits 6km north of the Stawell Gold Mine on the same basalt host, along an 8km mineralised trend that also includes the Caledonia prospect.
Key drill intercepts reported at Darlington include:
- 2.3m at 29.18 g/t Au from 108.2m (NSD057), including 0.8m at 82.3 g/t Au
- 4.0m at 10.77 g/t Au from 35m (NSAC0527)
- 6.0m at 3.45 g/t Au from 42.0m (NSAC0532)
- 0.40m at 17.1 g/t Au from 98.6m (NSD062)
The high-grade trend has been confirmed over 70m of strike and remains open to the south and at depth.
The high-grade intercepts from NSD057 sit within a broader confirmation of a major gold discovery at Darlington, where multiple holes have now returned significant results across the mineralised trend.
At Darlington West, NSD058 was the first hole to intersect “Stawell-type” basalt-margin gold at this target. It was drilled purely on geophysics and numerical modelling — a genuinely blind target with no prior drilling to guide it. The intercepts returned were:
- 0.5m at 6.01 g/t Au from 283.35m (NSD058)
- 0.85m at 1.56 g/t Au from 258m (NSD058)
- 0.8m at 1.07 g/t Au from 156.2m (NSD058)
The fact that a geophysics-only targeting approach returned three significant intercepts in a maiden hole validates NSM’s methodology. IP geophysics has since identified a strong conductor at Darlington West requiring follow-up drilling.
Wildwood: a defined resource with room to grow
Wildwood is NSM’s only defined Mineral Resource and was re-estimated in June 2023. It currently stands at 87,300 oz Au at 2.4 g/t Au (JORC 2012), with mineralisation remaining open in multiple directions and poorly tested below approximately 150m.
| Deposit | Category | Tonnes | Grade (g/t Au) | Ounces (oz Au) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maslin | Indicated | 328,100 | 2.3 | 24,600 |
| Maslin | Inferred | 361,900 | 2.2 | 25,500 |
| Clontarf | Indicated | 140,400 | 2.3 | 10,500 |
| Clontarf | Inferred | 90,100 | 1.9 | 5,400 |
| Trinity | Indicated | 121,800 | 2.4 | 9,500 |
| Trinity | Inferred | 112,600 | 3.3 | 11,800 |
| TOTAL | 1,154,900 | 2.4 | 87,300 |
1 g/t Au cut-off. Reported per JORC 2012. Source: ASX:NSM, 29 June 2023.
A highlighted drill result at Wildwood is 5.60m at 8.72 g/t Au from 201.1m (NSD050). Petrology confirms carbonate-quartz-chlorite alteration with an arsenopyrite association — the presentation noted this mineralisation style is directly comparable to the Stawell Gold Mine, 25km to the south.
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What comes next — NSM’s exploration priorities heading into late 2026
The presentation’s summary slide outlined the following next steps for NSM’s programme:
- Follow-up drilling to test the IP anomaly at Darlington West associated with the basalt.
- Expansion of the high-grade Darlington trend along strike, which remains open to the south.
- Application of IP geophysics at Wildwood to generate new depth targets beneath the existing resource.
- Continued integration of geochemistry, geophysics, and drilling across priority targets in the pipeline.
The scale of the existing dataset underpinning this work is substantial. NSM has 2,382 historic drill holes (161km) plus 762 NSM holes (64km) to draw on, and a target pipeline spanning from anomalous-gold stage through to a defined Mineral Resource. The presentation’s summary reinforced that gravity geophysics remains the key dataset for seeing through the cover sequence and targeting Delamerian-deformed basalts across the corridor.
For investors exploring how the shallow component of these targets was systematically tested prior to deeper diamond drilling, our detailed coverage of NSM’s air core drilling programme walks through the programme design, target selection rationale, and the specific intercepts that shaped the follow-up strategy now outlined for late 2026.
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