Southern Cross Gold Hits 972 g/t Au at Sunday Creek Depth

Southern Cross Gold Consolidated Ltd (OTCQX: SXGCF) reported drill hole SDDSC222W1 returning 0.6 m at 993.2 g/t gold-equivalent (972.0 g/t Au, 8.9% Sb) from 808.5 m at its 100%-owned Sunday Creek Gold-Antimony Project in Victoria, extending the A130 vein set 40 m deeper.

Southern Cross Gold Consolidated Ltd (OTCQX: SXGCF), also listed as TSX: SXGC, ASX: SX2 and FSE: MV3, has released assays from five drill holes at its 100%-owned Sunday Creek Gold-Antimony Project in Victoria, Australia. The standout is hole SDDSC222W1, which cut 0.6 m grading 993.2 g/t gold-equivalent — 972.0 g/t gold plus 8.9% antimony — from 808.5 m downhole, roughly 620 m below surface.

Gold-equivalent, or AuEq, is a single grade figure that folds the value of a second metal, here antimony, into the gold number so that a polymetallic intersection can be compared with a gold-only one. At Sunday Creek that second metal matters: one assay in this batch returned 32.5% antimony, a grade at which the by-product stops being a rounding error and starts being a co-product.

What the deep hole actually proves

The company ranks SDDSC222W1 as the ninth-best composite intersection ever drilled at Sunday Creek. That is a grade statement, but the geological point is about geometry rather than bragging rights: the hole extends the A130 vein set 40 m below its previously known vertical depth. Vein systems in this style of deposit are prized for continuity, and each step down that comes back with grade rather than barren quartz reduces the risk that the system pinches out at the bottom of the drilled envelope.

Southern Cross frames the result as evidence that grades continue to strengthen at depth in the Apollo zone. Investors should read that carefully: strengthening grade over a 0.6 m interval is a narrow observation, and narrow high-grade shoots are notoriously difficult to model into a resource without close-spaced drilling. What the hole does establish is that mineralisation is present at that depth, which is the precondition for everything else.

Apollo East gets shallower and further east

The second result may carry more near-term significance. Hole SDDSC227 returned 5.1 m at 27.2 g/t AuEq, including 2.6 m at 51.1 g/t AuEq, from 260.9 m — only 144 m below surface. That is the shallowest high-grade intersection drilled to date in Apollo East, and simultaneously the most easterly intersection anywhere on the project.

Shallow, high-grade and at the edge of the known system is an unusual combination. Shallow ounces are cheaper to reach; ounces at the eastern boundary suggest the deposit has not been closed off in that direction. Together the two holes stretch Sunday Creek in both dimensions that matter to a resource estimate — downward and outward. The company reports that five individual assays in this release exceed 50 g/t gold, ranging from 97.6 g/t up to the headline 972.0 g/t. Details of the release are set out by INN Precious Metals.

The antimony half of the story

Sunday Creek is described by its owner as a gold-antimony project, and the naming is deliberate. Antimony is used in flame retardants, lead-acid batteries, ammunition and semiconductors, and it sits on Western critical-minerals lists because supply is concentrated well outside North America and Europe. A 32.5% antimony assay at a gold project in Victoria is therefore interesting to two different buyer groups at once — precious metals investors and industrial or strategic-stockpile buyers.

The practical consequence is on the economics. If antimony credits are meaningful, the effective cost of producing an ounce of gold falls. That is why the company quotes AuEq rather than gold alone: at 8.9% antimony in the deep intersection, the equivalent grade of 993.2 g/t sits above the 972.0 g/t contributed by gold by itself.

How the market took it

The OTCQX line, SXGCF, last traded at 8.12 as of 20:00 GMT on Tuesday, 1 September 2026, down 5.96% from the prior close of 8.63, with a session range of 8.08 to 8.46. The stock finished near the bottom of that range. It was a soft session broadly — the S&P 500 tracker SPY closed at $761.82, off 0.68%, the Nasdaq 100 tracker QQQ at $707.68, down 1.27%, and the Dow tracker DIA at $527.79, down 0.71% — but the decline in the OTCQX quote was several times the size of the index moves.

Two caveats apply. The OTCQX listing is the least liquid of the company's four quotes; primary price discovery for Southern Cross happens on the ASX and TSX, where trading hours do not overlap neatly with the US session. A single day's move on a thin American line is weak evidence about how the drill results were received. Second, high-grade holes at an already well-drilled project face a high bar: the market often needs width and continuity, not just a spectacular half-metre, before it re-rates a name.

What determines whether this matters

The questions that will decide whether these five holes change the scale of Sunday Creek are straightforward, even if the answers take months:

• Whether follow-up drilling below the A130 vein set finds the same grade over usable widths, rather than in isolated narrow slivers.
• Whether Apollo East continues east past SDDSC227 — the most easterly intersection so far is, by definition, not a boundary until a hole comes back barren.
• Whether the shallow depth of the Apollo East mineralisation, at 144 m below surface, extends across a meaningful strike length, which would change the mining approach for that part of the system.
• How antimony grades of the order reported here are treated in any future resource statement and metallurgical work.

None of that is settled by an assay release. What the release does is give the company two directions in which to keep spending drill metres, both of which have now returned grade. For a single-asset developer, that is the currency the market watches — and the reason the next batch of holes will be read as closely as this one.

Reading the numbers with discipline

Ultra-high-grade gold assays invite over-extrapolation. A 972 g/t result over 0.6 m is a real and rare number, but it is a composite over a very short interval and cannot be projected across a deposit. The more durable data points in this release are the structural ones: 40 m of new vertical extent on the A130 vein set, a new eastern limit for the project, and a high-grade intersection at 144 m depth where none had previously been drilled that shallow in Apollo East. Those are the figures that feed a resource model. The headline grade is what gets it read.

Key facts

• Stock (OTCQX): SXGCF last close 8.12, -5.96%, as of 20:00 GMT Sep 1, 2026
• Headline intersection: SDDSC222W1: 0.6 m @ 993.2 g/t AuEq (972.0 g/t Au, 8.9% Sb) from 808.5 m
• Shallowest Apollo East hit: SDDSC227: 5.1 m @ 27.2 g/t AuEq incl. 2.6 m @ 51.1 g/t AuEq, 144 m below surface
• Project: Sunday Creek Gold-Antimony Project, Victoria — 100%-owned

Frequently asked questions

What did Southern Cross Gold report at Sunday Creek?

The company released assays from five drill holes at its 100%-owned Sunday Creek Gold-Antimony Project in Victoria. The best was SDDSC222W1, cutting 0.6 m at 993.2 g/t gold-equivalent — 972.0 g/t gold and 8.9% antimony — from 808.5 m downhole, about 620 m below surface, which it ranks the ninth-best composite intersection drilled at the project.

What does gold-equivalent (AuEq) mean?

Gold-equivalent converts the value of a second metal into an equivalent gold grade so a polymetallic intersection can be compared with a gold-only one. At Sunday Creek the second metal is antimony. In the headline hole, 972.0 g/t gold plus 8.9% antimony was reported as 993.2 g/t AuEq, with the antimony credit accounting for the difference.

Why is hole SDDSC227 significant?

SDDSC227 returned 5.1 m at 27.2 g/t AuEq, including 2.6 m at 51.1 g/t AuEq, from 260.9 m — just 144 m below surface. It is both the shallowest high-grade intersection drilled in Apollo East and the most easterly intersection anywhere on the project, meaning the deposit has been extended outward as well as downward.

How did the shares react?

The OTCQX line, SXGCF, last traded at 8.12 as of 20:00 GMT on September 1, 2026, down 5.96% from a prior close of 8.63, with a day range of 8.08 to 8.46. That fall was larger than the same-session declines in the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and Dow trackers, though the OTCQX quote is the company's thinnest listing.

Why does the antimony grade matter?

Antimony is used in flame retardants, batteries, ammunition and semiconductors, and appears on Western critical-minerals lists because supply is geographically concentrated. One assay in this release returned 32.5% antimony. Meaningful antimony credits lower the effective cost of producing each gold ounce, which is why the company reports gold-equivalent grades alongside gold grades.

Where else is Southern Cross Gold listed?

Southern Cross Gold Consolidated Ltd carries four listings: TSX under SXGC, ASX under SX2, OTCQX under SXGCF and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under MV3. Primary liquidity sits on the Australian and Canadian lines; the OTCQX quote is generally the thinnest and can move on limited volume, so single-session US price action is weak evidence of sentiment.

Sources

• Southern Cross Gold Drills 0.6 m @ 972 g/t Gold in Apollo and Drills Easternmost Mineralization — INN Precious Metals

Photo: Marc Pell · Pexels Licence — source