Au Gold Corp engages Geomorphic AI to independently validate drill targeting at its Havelock Gold-Antimony Project and generate new projects in Victoria, Australia – Richard Mills

Au Gold Corp (TSXV:AUGC) has engaged Geomorphic AI Corporation, a private North American AI-driven minerals prospect generator with a proprietary geoscience platform, to independently validate drill targeting at the company’s 100%-owned Havelock Gold-Antimony Project in Victoria, Australia. In addition to reviewing the Havelock Project, Geomorphic will use its proprietary AI agents to identify other high-potential gold projects in the Victorian Goldfields which AUGC may elect to acquire. 

Havelock Gold-Antimony Project

Au Gold’s Havelock Gold-Antimony Project is in the Victorian goldfields near Maryborough, roughly halfway between Bendigo and Ballarat, and about 90 minutes’ drive from Melbourne, Australia. Paved highways and roads along with gravel tracks provide year-round access. Land ownership is a combination of Crown land and private property.

The Victorian Goldfields have produced more than 80 million gold ounces, and host Agnico Eagle’s Fosterville Mine, Southern Cross Gold Consolidated’s Sunday Creek discovery and Alkane Resources’ Costerfield gold-antimony mine. Gold-antimony systems in the region have been shown to persist well below the depth of historical mining.

The project contains the 9 km Shaw-McFarlane Trend (SMT), which has never been drilled, together with the Leviathan-Mariner’s and Oxonian trends. Historical records compiled by the company show recorded hard-rock production from the SMT of approximately 17,097 ounces of gold at an average grade of 28.7 g/t gold between 1864 and 1891, with the deepest workings at Shaw’s Main reaching only 152 meters and all other mines on the trend worked to less than 107m. This historical information pre-dates NI 43-101 standards, and no mineral resources exist on the project.

“Havelock is well described in historical mining records that date back a century and a half. The Company recently reconstructed long sections for the main historical mines along the central portion of Shaw-McFarlane Trend to guide its upcoming drill campaign,” Au Gold’s founder and CEO Marc Blythe said in the Oct. 27 news release. “Geomorphic gives us a way to combine and validate all project information, old and new, in one consistent, auditable framework and to rank targets with the evidence attached. That is exactly the discipline we want behind our first modern drill holes at Havelock. Geomorphic’s platform will enable us to test the historical record rigorously and sharpen our targeting parameters. We look forward to sharing results as they become available.”

On the Havelock and Ponderosa projects, Geomorphic’s work begins with a search for new data. Geomorphic will sweep government and other public archives for historical exploration and mining records not documented in the company’s database and combine what it recovers with the company’s own surface and geophysical information. Geomorphic will then prepare geological syntheses and provide AUGC’s technical team with a ranked portfolio of targets, each carrying its supporting evidence, confidence and the criteria that would disprove it, with targets re-ranked as new results arrive.

In parallel, Geomorphic will run a project generation program across Victoria, using its platform to screen the state’s public geological, geochemical and historical mining records for new gold exploration projects on ground not currently held by the company. Each new project identified will be delivered to Au Gold for evaluation, and the company retains sole discretion over whether to acquire it.

Geomorphic AI Chief Executive Officer Mark Sumner said, “Havelock is the kind of project our platform was built for. The Victorian Goldfields hold an exceptional historical archive, from the mine managers’ reports of the 1860s through to modern drilling on the Leviathan-Mariner’s Trend, but that record was produced by many separate companies to very different standards. Our job is to make it auditable, show what the evidence actually supports, and hand Au Gold’s geologists targets they can question, refine and ultimately drill-test.”

Agreement highlights

Under the services agreement with Geomorphic, Geomorphic will provide data compilation and validation, geological synthesis, and target generation and ranking across the company’s Havelock and Ponderosa projects, together with a project generation program to identify new gold exploration projects for the Company in Victoria.

AUGC may elect to acquire any new project identified by Geomorphic by granting a 2% net smelter returns royalty on each new project acquired by AUGC or an affiliate within five years of the project being delivered, applied to the company’s attributable interest. The royalty does not apply to the Havelock or Ponderosa projects or to any other mineral rights held by the company.

In connection with the agreement, Au Gold has granted 250,000 stock options to Geomorphic, exercisable at $0.28 per share for a period of five years from the date of grant. The options are issued pursuant to the company’s stock option plan and are subject to the policies of, and acceptance by, the TSX Venture Exchange.

Other news

In other AUGC news, the company selected its first two high-priority drill targets in mid-September: McFarlane’s and Shaw’s No. 1 North.

At McFarlane’s, diamond drilling will systematically target the down-plunge continuation of the best gold-antimony mineralization interpreted from reconstructed historical mine records dating back to the 1880’s. High-grade gold and antimony were historically mined at this target to a depth of 107 meters.

At Shaw’s No.1 North, diamond drilling will systematically target the region below the 55m level of the historical mine to test continuity of mineralization and establish potential plunge geometry of mineralized shoots. Drill holes will also test the parallel reef east of the main Shaw No. 1 workings.

“We are extremely excited to have identified these two high-priority targets along the Shaw-McFarlane Trend which was a productive gold belt in the 1800’s. The first targets announced in this release are the McFarlane historical gold-antimony mineralization and the nearby 514 ounces of gold reportedly recovered from the Dam target in 2010, both of which initially drew AUGC to this project,” Blythe stated in the Sept. 16 news release.

Two more drill targets were added on Sept. 21 — Shaw’s Main and Rob Roy — both past-producing mines with the potential for shallow high-grade gold discoveries beneath the historical workings.

• Shaw’s Main – untested, unmined continuation of the strongest gold mineralization interpreted from reconstructed historical mine records.  Select grab samples from the mine waste dump returned 54.20, 25.10 and 16.70 grams per tonne gold, respectively.

• Rob Roy – down-plunge continuation of ultra-high-grade shoots and two parallel reefs associated with a doubly plunging structural architecture where mineralization is documented up to 91 cm wide, containing visible gold.

“While the Rob Roy mine reported specimens ‘amongst the richest seen in the Maryborough district’, Shaw’s Main had the highest historical production of all the mines within the Shaw – McFarlane Trend (SMT) and sampling by AUGC confirms the tenor of this mineralization. Au Gold is building an inventory of drill targets with additional work ongoing as we prepare for drilling to commence,” Blythe stated in the Sept. 21 news release.

On Aug. 31 Au Gold finalized historical long section reconstruction at Havelock. 

The company said it completed its research and compiled the findings from about 17 documented historical shafts and significant workings along the central portion of the Havelock property spanning a strike length of five kilometers of the nine-km Shaw-McFarlane Trend. The bulk of the historical gold production is reported from a series of mines within a 2.34 km central portion of the trend. Figure 1 shows the Havelock southern exploration license with plan view maps of the northerly trending SMT and the distribution of the main workings in long section.

Between 1864 and 1891, the total recorded hard rock gold production from the mines along the SMT was approximately 17,097 ounces at an average grade of 28.7 grams per tonne gold. The majority of this reported production is from the mines between McFarlane’s and Rob Roy illustrated on Figure 1.  The most extensive series of workings are situated at Shaw’s Main where approximately 11,400 ounces of gold was extracted with the lowest level of the mine recorded at 152m. All other mines along the trend were worked to levels shallower than 107m. 

“The extensive reconstruction of these historical production records is a critical step in our understanding of the reef systems developed at Havelock.  Past shallow high-grade gold production at multiple sites along the trend reinforces our belief in the potential for significant discoveries beneath the historical workings, Blythe said in the Aug. 31 news release.

On Oct. 14 Au Gold closed a $3.5 million non-brokered private placement consisting of 15,217,500 units priced $0.23 each. Each unit comprises one share and one half warrant valid for three years. Each whole warrant may be converted to one share of AUGC by payment of $0.40. The securities issued with respect to the private placement will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day in accordance with applicable securities laws expiring on Feb. 15, 2027. 

The company paid $36,225 in finder’s fees and issued 157,500 finder’s warrants with each finder’s warrant exercisable at $0.40 for a period of two years. 

Under the Spotlight — Marc Blythe, CEO Au Gold TSXV:AUGC

Au Gold to Drill Havelock High-Grade Gold and Antimony Project — Richard Mills  

Au Gold Corp
TSXV:AUGC
2026.10.28 Share Price: Cdn$0.235
Shares Outstanding: 73.7m
Market Cap: Cdn$13.7m
AUGC website

Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com

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Richard owns shares of (Au Gold TSXV:AUGC). AUGC is a paid advertiser on his site aheadoftheherd.com

This article is issued on behalf of AUGC.