EL 6722 covers an area of approximately 300 square kilometres and is located 400 kilometres north of Sydney in the New England Fold Belt of eastern Australia, or about 5 kilometres north of Armidale, New South Wales. The licence encompasses the Armidale project which comprises numerous historic precious and base metals mines and workings, including three regionally-significant silver mines. EL 6722 abuts Straits Resources Limited’s Hillgrove gold-antimony mine’s regional exploration tenure.
The Armidale project is considered prospective for precious metals deposits.
Armidale Project
The Armidale project area covers numerous historic gold, silver, antimony, and tungsten mines and workings, including the Taits Gully silver-gold mine and the Greengate silverlead- zinc mine. The application area also contains the historic Whybatong silver-gold mine (adjacent to Taits Gully) which remains covered by a small mining lease (not owned by the Company). Limited modern exploration has been completed in the area.
The Taits Gully silver-gold mine is situated 15 kilometres north of Armidale and comprises workings spread over a two kilometre area. The two largest workings, the Mary Ann and the Endeavour mines, were first worked in 1901 and 1910 respectively. During this time until 1914 (when the mine ceased owing to World War 1) at least 36,400 oz silver and 400 oz gold were reportedly recovered.
Exploration at Taits Gully in 1982 and in 1984 culminated in a small drilling programme with a best result of 7m at 48ppm silver, 0.6% zinc, 0.3% lead, and 0.2ppm gold from 54m returned. The Company believes that Taits Gully has not been adequately tested and that potential remains for the discovery of high-grade silver-gold mineralisation.
The Greengate silver-lead-zinc mine is located about 20 kilometres northwest of Armidale. Previous recorded exploration has been limited to small programs in 1966 and 1982. Historic rockchip assay results reveal anomalous levels of gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper with values of up to 36ppm silver, 2.3% lead and 4.5% zinc.
The area also hosts the Blue Moon gravity prospect, an untested six kilometre-wide circular gravity anomaly, possibly representing a sub-volcanic chamber associated with a collapsed caldera, or a buried intrusive pluton. This anomaly represents a sizeable exploration target given its proximity to altered acid volcanics with associated precious metals values