Attunga
The Attunga project - EL6883 & EL6884 - is located about 20 km north of Tamworth (pop ~42,000), or about 330 km north of Sydney, New South Wales. The licences cover a combined area of about 250 km2.
Within the Attunga project, there are three specific areas of interest: the Attunga Tungsten Deposit area; the Attunga Copper Mine prospect and the Kensington gold-tungsten prospect. The Attunga Project area is considered prospective for tungsten-molybdenum skarn-type mineralisation, base/precious metal skarn-type mineralisation, and gold (+/-tungsten) intrusive-related gold system type mineralisation.
During 2010, Peel completed a comprehensive geological and geochemical mapping programme across the main zone of interest at the Attunga project, essentially covering an area centred on the Inlet Monzonite and Peel Fault. The survey area covered all of the major prospects mentioned above and resulted in an updated geological dataset and the identification of new areas of interest for future investigation.
Attunga Tungsten Deposit
Discovered in 1968, the Attunga Tungsten Deposit was subject to an intense, but short lived exploration programme comprising a total of 25 diamond drillholes for 4,236m of drilling to a maximum depth of about 290m.This identified a small high-grade tungsten resource. Subsequent explorers considered that a larger resource of lower grade material was present. Minimal further exploration was completed at the Attunga Tungsten Deposit in the ensuing years.
The Attunga Tungsten Deposit can be classified as a skarn deposit formed by the intrusion of the Inlet Monzonite into sedimentary rocks of the Middle Devonian Tamworth Group. Tungsten and molybdenum mineralisation occur as fine disseminations and veinlets of scheelite, powellite and molybdenite; primarily within skarn, monzonite and a fine-grained contact rock termed "scheelite rock". Minor mineralisation also occurs in hornfels, calc-silicate hornfels and marble.
During the period 2007-2009, Peel Exploration completed multiple phases of exploration at the Attunga Tungsten Deposit including the completion of an independent JORC-compliant resource estimation in April 2008. A high-grade inferred tungsten-molybdenum resource was defined with results including 1.29 Mt at 0.61% WO3 and 0.05% Mo for 9,400t contained WO3 equivalent using a 0.2% WO3 equivalent cutoff.
In July 2008, Peel completed two RC drillholes (ATP1-D & ATP1-G) at Attunga Tungsten Deposit and in August 2008, Peel announced high-grade assay results from drillhole ATP1-D with an intersection of 42m at 2.09% WO3 and 0.17% Mo from 21m downhole including an extraordinary interval of 2m at 24.21% WO3 and 1.71% Mo from 22m downhole. Drillhole ATP1-G returned an intersection of 10m at 0.27% WO3 and 0.04% Mo from 39m downhole.
In March 2009, Peel completed initial metallurgical testwork resulting in the production of high grade WO3 concentrate along with a potential process flowsheet. The potential process flow sheet identified would involve staged crushing and grinding, conventional gravity concentration (spirals), drying of gravity concentrates, removal of magnetic gangue material (garnet) via magnetic circuit, and flotation of fine (-75 micron) spiral tails. Secondary processing/mineral dressing would involve further flotation work.
In June 2009, Peel announced that new drilling at Attunga had returned high grade tungsten intercepts including 27m at 0.54% WO3 and 0.06% Mo from 19m (including 2m at 3.38% WO3 and 0.27% Mo) from 22m in RC drillhole AP1-026, and 2m at 0.59% WO3 and 0.03% Mo from 58m in RC drillhole AP1-027.
During financial year 2010, Peel completed an in‐house conceptual study into development options for the Attunga Tungsten Deposit with results indicating that a small, low capital expenditure operation could potentially yield positive returns. Peel believes that the deposit's small, high grade nature and proximity to excellent infrastructure and services bodes well for its future advancement/potential development.
Also during 2010, Peel initiated a review of the garnet potential of the Attunga Tungsten Deposit. Geological logging and petrology studies completed to date indicate that the Attunga Tungsten Deposit contains large quantities of garnet. Garnet is used extensively in the sand blasting industry and substantial amounts of garnet are imported into Australia. Peel's metallurgical testwork indicates that a clean garnet concentrate would be a natural by‐product of any scheelite recovery operation. Peel plans to retrieve a bulk sample to test the sandblasting qualities and marketability of Attunga's garnet.
Attunga Copper Mine
The Attunga Copper Mine, located about 800m north of the Attunga Tungsten Deposit was discovered in 1902 and worked over various periods up until World War 2. Total recorded production was about 1,600t ore grading ~6% copper, ~8 g/t gold and ~150 g/t silver. Other significant metals present include bismuth, and molybdenum.
Mineralisation at the Attunga Copper Mine occurs in a garnet skarn similar to that at the Attunga Tungsten Deposit. Minimal modern exploration has been completed, however an IP survey completed in the mid-1980s defined multiple anomalies.
In April 2009, Peel completed a transient electromagnetics (TEM) survey with results suggesting that the presence of a moderate, shallow conductor, centred approximately 200m north of the historic Attunga Copper Mine workings. Shortly after, Peel commenced a drilling programme to target the historic Attunga Copper Mine workings and the northern EM anomaly. While thick clays prevented the effective testing of the EM anomaly, drilling to the south of the historic workings resulted in the discovery of strong polymetallic mineralisation. Drillhole ACM-004 returned 75m at 1.02 g/t Au, 0.87% Cu, 0.09% Mo, 0.06% Bi, and 22 g/t Ag from 136m including 27m at 1.60 g/t Au, 1.66% Cu, 0.18% Mo, 0.1% Bi, and 39 g/t Ag from 136m. The true width of the above intervals is construed to be approximately 25% of the downhole intercepts.
Between March and May 2010, Peel completed a programme of six diamond drillholes for 944m drilling that returned encouraging mineralisation up-dip of ACM-004 with an interval of 5.6m at 0.44% Mo, 0.70 g/t Au, 12 g/t Ag, 0.45% Cu, 1.9 g/t Re from 48m and 1.4m at 22.70 g/t Au, 13 g/t Ag, 0.72% Cu from 55m.
The results from the Attunga Copper Mine confirm the presence of significant molybdenum-gold-copper skarn mineralisation that remains open in several directions and provides encouragement that the Attunga skarn deposits are possibly part of a larger metalliferous system, perhaps including a porphyry/mineralised granite source.
Kensington gold prospect
The Kensington gold prospect, located about 5 km north of the Attunga Tungsten Deposit, comprises a series of historic gold workings (pre-WW1) across 800m strike with mineralisation outcropping, and covered by a 1,500m long, +100 ppb gold geochemical anomaly, open in several directions. In 1987 diamond drilling intersected extensive low-grade gold mineralisation with better results including 13m at 1.07 g/t Au from 0m and 108m at 0.74 g/t Au from 8m returned.
Gold mineralisation at Kensington is hosted in a complexly faulted/sheared suite of dioritic and andesitic breccias, andesitic volcanic greywacke (also described as lithic arenites) andesitic tuff, carbonaceous shale, metasediments and lamprophyre.
In July 2008, Peel completed an RC drilling programme encountering widespread gold mineralisation with better results including 9m at 1.4 g/t Au from 15m, 5m at 2.76 g/t Au from 60m, 14m at 0.78 g/t Au from 24m and 13m at 1.07 g/t Au from 49m. In April 2009, Peel completed an Induced Polarisation (IP) survey at Kensington that highlighted several zones chargeabililty. Follow-up drilling identified one of these zones as caused by black shale.
In July 2010, Peel commenced a RAB drilling programme designed to test a reported shallow tungsten occurrence and to test for additional near-surface gold. In October 2010, Peel reported the discovery of new shallow gold mineralisation at Kensington from this RAB drilling with better results including 24.5m at 0.74 g/t gold from 1.5m; 12m at 0.61 g/t gold from 13m and 14m at 1.78 g/t gold from 17m. Gold mineralisation at Kensington remains open to the northwest and southeast, and down dip.