The Great Southern Mining Ltd (ASX: GSN) share price is flying higher today after the small-cap ASX miner announced the commencement of drilling at its Cox’s Find Project.

Great Southern Mining is a mineral exploration company with a focus on gold. It has landholdings in the gold districts of Laverton in Western Australia and the Mt Carlton region of North Queensland.

What did Great Southern Mining announce?

This morning, Great Southern Mining revealed it has commenced the extensive reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drill program at its 100%-owned Cox’s Find Project. 

Cox’s Find is an orogenic gold deposit located in the Duketon Greenstone Belt in the Laverton District of WA. It is located within 12 kilometres of Regis Resources Limited (ASX: RRL)’s multi-million ounce Garden Well.

Limited exploration has been conducted at the Cox’s Find Project since mining activities ceased in the early 1940s. The mine produced approximately 107,000 tonnes at an average grade of 22 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 77,000 ounces.

In late 2019, Great Southern Mining completed its maiden RC drilling program at Cox’s Find, comprising 17 RC holes for 2,658 metres. According to the company, results from this maiden program highlighted that the remnant high-grade gold mineralisation remains.

Standout results from this program (announced last year) include:

• 8 metres at 9.43 g/t gold from 73 metres;
• 2 metres at 36 g/t gold from 146 metres;
• 5 metres at 45.54 g/t gold from 140 metres;
• 6 metres at 7.9 g/t gold from 132 metres; and
• 5 metres at 31.23 g/t gold from 134 metres.

The commencement of the new drilling program announced today will build on these recent results.

“This will be the first intensive drill program targeting the down plunge extensions of the deposit and the first diamond drill program targeting the high-grade lode,” said CEO Mark Major.

“This program should enhance our structural understanding of the deposit and assist with advancing the forthcoming drill programs at the Cox’s Find deposit and support targeting repeat structures within our tenure,” Mr Major added.

Great Southern Mining noted that the RC drill rig is on-site and it has commenced drilling the initial phase of the 9,000-metre drilling program. Meanwhile, the company expects the diamond drill rig to arrive on-site within a week.

At the time of writing, the Great Southern Mining share price is up 12.94% for the day to 9.6 cents. This takes the company’s current market capitalisation to just under $40 million.

In other news in the gold space, large-cap ASX gold shares are charging higher today after the gold price rebounded overnight.

More reading

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• Does the ASX 200 just follow the US markets?
• 3 top ASX shares to buy now to get rich later
• ASX 200 up 0.45%: Harvey Norman declares special dividend, gold miners race higher
• Are Aussies still withdrawing cash like crazy?

Motley Fool contributor Cathryn Goh has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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Does the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) just follow the United States markets? Do we even need to watch the ASX when we could really just watch the Dow Jones or the Nasdaq?

These are the questions we’ll be answering today.

If we look at the recent performance of the ASX 200 index (the largest 200 Australian shares) in conjunction with the S&P 500 Index (the largest 500 American shares), some striking resemblances do become apparent.

Just take a look at this graph of the ASX 200 – represented here by the iShares Core S&P/ASX 200 ETF (ASX: IOZ).

Now, compare this with the S&P 500 – represented here by the iShares S&P 500 (AUD Hedged) ETF (ASX: IHVV)

Look familiar?

Digging a little deeper, the ASX 200 and S&P 500 both had their 2020 peaks on 20 February (Australian time).

Then, the ASX 200 fell 36.53% between 20 February and 23 March where it found its bottom for 2020 so far.

The S&P 500? It fell 33.92% over the same period and also found its lowest point for the year on 23 March.

Since then, the ASX 200 has risen approximately 35% off these lows. The S&P 500 is up ~43%.

So we have a same-day peak, a same-day trough and very similar gains and losses in between for both the US and Australian markets in 2020.

My forensic conclusion? Eerily similar.

What does this mean for ASX 200 investors?

As much as we might like to think that our own Aussie markets are independent of the US, the data doesn’t suggest this conclusion.

Of course, there will always be localised nuances that move each market independently of the other. But on the ‘big issues’, it would appear that the American dog is wagging the ASX tail most of the time.

That, in turn, means that we all need to be watching the US markets like a hawk in my view (or more accurately, like a dove). The US Federal Reserve has been pumping an unprecedented amount of cash into the American financial system – far more than our own Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has been doing here. This, I think, is partly responsible for the massive rally in US shares we have seen over the past 2½ months. And it will also likely be the most influential force driving the markets over the rest of the year, in my opinion.

So if you’re aspiring to be a ‘serious investor’ but you don’t take an active interest in what the US markets are doing, it’s probably a good idea to change that habit. As much as we’d like to think of ourselves as ‘independent’ of the US, the data shows this is not really the case.

More reading

• ASX 200 up 0.45%: Harvey Norman declares special dividend, gold miners race higher
• Why you can’t afford not to invest in ASX 200 shares in 2020
• These ASX shares could defy the market sell-off this morning
• Is the Woodside Petroleum share price cheap today?
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Wednesday

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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