Trundle

Current Highlights

Ten RC holes (1239m) were drilled to test the gold-copper targets at Trundle Park in January 2011. Eight of the ten holes returned significant gold-copper and/or silver results, including the following intercepts:
• TPRC003: 56m @ 0.88g/t Au, 0.35% Cu, 3.74g/t Ag from 34m, including
o 2m @ 20g/t Au, 6.97% Cu, 81g/t Ag from 64m
• TPRC005: 58m @ 0.44g/t Au, 0.17% Cu from 22m, including
o 4m @ 1.19g/t Au, 0.41% Cu from 28m
o 4m @ 1.06g/t Au, 0.36% Cu from 70m
• TPRC009: 52m @ 0.45g/t Au from 32m, including
o 6m@ 0.99g/t Au from 52m
o 2m @ 0.99g/t Au from 64m

The high grade gold, copper and silver mineralisation in TPRC003 is associated with quartz veining and native copper. The veining is also elevated in arsenic, bismuth, tellurium and antimony, typical of epithermal style mineralisation. The epithermal veining overprints the gold-copper magnetite skarn, which indicates that there are at least two distinct phases of gold-copper mineralisation at Trundle Park. The high grade interval is 75m south of historic workings last operated in the 1930’s (production unknown) and is interpreted to be representative of what was mined previously, the implication being that this mineralisation is consistent for at least 75m along strike and is open to the north, south and at depth.

Project Description

Trundle consists of two exploration licences EL4512 and EL7187 located 25km west of the Northparkes copper-gold mine (Rio Tinto). It has many similarities to Northparkes and is separated from the Northparkes district by a north-south trending Devonian rift basin. Interpretation of geophysical data suggests that Trundle may have originally been part of the Northparkes complex, which was subsequently dismembered during development of the rift. Recent work focussed at the Trundle Park and Mordialloc prospects.

At Trundle Park, a 3D IP survey was completed and several diamond holes drilled by previous explorers were re-logged which defined several shallow gold-copper drill targets. Previous intercepts from the prospect include 11m @ 1.2g/t Au & 0.36% Cu from 3m; 25.45m @ 0.71g/t Au from 14.85m; and 35m @ 0.59g/t Au & 0.25% Cu from 12m. The style of mineralisation is similar to the Big Cadia skarn that is associated with the giant Cadia Valley porphyry deposits. The skarn at Cadia produced about 140,000 tonnes of copper at a grade of 5-7% Cu and over 1.5Mt of iron ore before the discovery of the massive Cadia Valley porphyry deposits. The Big Cadia skarn is the distal part of the Cadia hydrothermal system and forms part of the current resource and it was mined for decades before the porphyry deposits were discovered. At Trundle Park there is potential for porphyry copper-gold mineralisation at depth.

The drilling confirmed the presence of shallow gold and copper skarn mineralisation in the range 0.4g/t to 1g/t Au and 0.2% to 0.4% Cu over drilled widths of 40m to 60m. The potential of the magnetite skarn is highlighted by hole TPRC005, which intersected a broad interval of moderate grade gold-copper mineralisation; 58m @ 0.44g/t Au, 0.17% Cu from 22m, including 4m @ 1.19g/t Au, 0.41% Cu from 28m. The skarn is magnetite-rich, so it forms a prominent magnetic anomaly and the skarn horizon can be traced on ground magnetic imagery over a 2.2km strike length and is poorly drill tested.
Hole TPRC009 intersected 52m at 0.45g/t Au from 32m, including 6m at 0.99g/t Au from 52m. This intercept is 50m north of the previously reported intersection in CHEP-1 of 25.45m @ 0.71g/t Au from 14.85m. The mineralisation is not skarn related and the trace element geochemistry indicates the gold is epithermal in style and strong sericite and pyrite alteration supports this interpretation. The mineralisation is adjacent to the major north-south striking thrust that bounds the project to the east. The mineralisation is interpreted to be dipping to the west, parallel to the major thrust.

Further drilling is planned for Trundle Park in 2011 to follow up the high-grade epithermal gold-copper mineralisation and also the extensive gold-rich magnetite skarn horizon.
 

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