The Randalls Project group of tenements [Morelands Find (M15/152), Jones Find (P25/1836), Lindsays Find (E28/1672), Hickmans Find (P25/1856), Duchess of York (P25/1857), Duchess of York East (P25/1858), and Randalls South (E15/870)] are located on both sides of the Trans-Australian Railway Line. Access is via the Trans-Australian Railway Line access road and various roads that branch off this main service route.
Randalls South, which is partially located in Lake Randall, is best accessed from the Mount Monger South Road. During 2006/2007 exploration work, in the form of data review, was carried out only on the Morelands Find (M15/152) tenement.
Regional Geology
The prospects are located in the south eastern part of the Eastern Goldfields Province of the Yilgarn Craton, where the geological and structural settings are complex.
The Eastern Goldfields comprises a series of attenuated northerly trending greenstone belts, which have been intruded by and are enclosed within similarly elongate granitoids plutons and complexes. Anastomising regional scale faults, mostly of sinistral strike-slip shears, dissect the province. However, broad-scale stratigraphic correlations still persist across these structures.
The regional stratigraphy comprises a lower basaltic unit, overlain by komatiite, followed by an upper basalt unit (with komatiite affinities) which in turn is overlain by a sequence of felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks. Clastic sedimentary rocks unconformably overlie this sequence.
The komatiite is interpreted as a regional marker that extends across the Eastern Goldfields. However, other units vary laterally whilst felsic volcanic rocks occur at numerous intervals throughout the sequence. Researchers have subdivided the Eastern Goldfields into tectonostratigraphic domains bounded by major faults.
Morelands Find Prospect (M15/152)
The Morelands Find tenement is located north of the Trans Railway Line, 42km east southeast of Kalgoorlie and forms part of the historical Morelands Find mining centre in WA's East Coolgardie Mineral Field. The tenement covers a suit of northerly trending Archaean mafic extrusive and intrusive rocks (GSWA Kurnalpi Sheet SH 51-10). Between 1922 and 1927 the area produced about 30.5kg of gold (74.8 g/t gold).
Mineralisation in the area is confined to sub-vertical quartz veins, which are more or less concordant with the greenstones. Swager (1995) has interpreted greenstones of the area as a thrust over the younger felsic volcanic rocks and the location of gold mineralisation near the axis of an F1 anticline.
Exploration 2006/2007
The work program for the period included a review of available previous exploration data; a study of modern exploration approaches (including the suitability of Mobile Metal Ion (MMI) geochemistry for the discovery of concealed gold and base metals resources) suitable for the area; available published and unpublished information on gold and base metals occurrences and working mines to help determine an appropriate exploration program for the coming year.
Outlook
The area has a proven history of high-grade gold mining, evidenced by the Sweet Nell mine where average gold grade of 74.8 g/t was achieved. Copper- and bismuth-rich gold deposits have been reported in dolerite adjacent to the thrust fault.
The high grade gold discovered and mined in the early part of the 20th Century was achieved at a time when geological understanding and technology was not as highly developed as it is today.
With this in mind, the Company believes that the Morelands Find Prospect has the potential to host the discovery of a sizable gold resource.
For 2008 the following exploration work is planned at the Randalls Project:
- Aerial photography accompanied by detailed geological and regolith mapping;
- Structural analysis;
- Application of Mobile Metal Ion (MMI) Geochemistry; and
- Scout drilling, logging, sampling, assaying, etc.
Other prospects
Earlier exploration drilling by others has outlined an Inferred Resource 34,000 t @ 1.8 9/t gold at Hickman's Find and a further Inferred Resource of 132,000 t @ 2.3 g/t gold at the Duchess of York prospect. Mineralisation is located at or near the sheared contact between ferruginous black shale and dacite porphyry. Mineralisation is developed as a crack seal stockwork of quartz-pyrite-gold veins in silicified and sericitised porphyry at or near the sheared contact. Scope exists to raise the Inferred Resource to a JORC compliant resource through a carefully planned angled RC drill program to a depth of 75m below surface. The existent drilling density is both shallow and too open to permit calculation of a JORC compliant reserve.
At Jones' Find an Inferred Resource of 380,000 t @ 2.1 g/t gold has been outlined by drilling. Mineralisation at Jones' Find comprises a complex structurally controlled, crack seal, gold-pyrite-quartz vein stockwork developed within a large, brittle fractured, monzodiorite intrusive. Scope remains to transform the inferred gold resource to a JORC compliant reserve through the completion of a pattern angled RC drilling program. Re evaluation of the geology of the prospect is required to maximise the impact of RC drilling on resource definition.
