The Spinifex Well Project comprises four tenements (E37/793, E37/749, E37/760, and E37/800) and is located in the Mount Malcolm District of the Mount Margaret Mineral Field in WA, about 70km north of Leonora and 250km north of Kalgoorlie. Access from Leonora is by way of the major Leonora-Nambi main road.
The Project covers a substantial portion of a large magnetic granodiorite complex on the eastern side of the Bundarra Batholith. Previous explorers have identified a number of gold anomalies hosted within quartz veins. However, these anomalies have only been tested with limited drilling; insufficient to evaluate their potential.
Regional Geology
The regional geological setting of the Spinifex Well Project area is dominated by the Bundarra Batholith, a large intrusive granitoid which is located between the Keith Kilkenny and Celia Lineaments, at the southern end of the Yandal Greenstone Belt.
The batholith is generally granodioritic. However, various younger phases have been identified from geophysical (magnetic) data. The Bundarra Batholith and its enclosed dioritic complexes contain a number of gold bearing quartz lode systems.
Project Geology
The Spinifex Well Project is extensively soil covered with outcrop confined to the northern, central, and southern parts of the tenement area where biotite monzogranite and synogranite/alkali feldspar granites are exposed. Therefore, the bulk of any potential gold mineralisation has been effectively masked by alluvial/colluvial cover.
Geophysical (magnetic) interpretation has identified a number of areas within the prospect. It is believed that these areas may be prospective for Bronzewing-style gold mineralisation. These areas include a greenstone raft about 3km east of Stack Well, in the northern part of E37/749. Ferruginous quartz veining and stockworks prospective for gold mineralisation have been identified in the Spinifex Well/Three Dagoes Well areas.
Exploration by Exploration Research (Australia) Pty Ltd and Placer Exploration Ltd has identified a number of gold bearing quartz sulphide hematite vein systems associated with the Bundarra Batholith within Fairstar's tenement area.
An extensive, but generally thin, cover of sand, soil, and hardpan effectively masks several lineaments which have been inferred from geophysical evidence. These lineaments are believed to provide favourable sites for bulk tonnage gold bearing quartz vein stockwork targets.
Previous explorers have identified several gold anomalies, which as yet have not been drill tested. These anomalies will, if warranted by further investigation, be the subject of a reconnaissance drilling program. A study of aeromagnetic data by a geophysical consultant together with the results of previous exploration indicates that the Fairstar tenements are intersected by major structural lineaments and contact zones which may provide favourable sites for gold mineralisation.
In addition, the indicated presence of remnant greenstone rafts and felsic volcanic (porphyry) bodies in contact with granodiorite and associated auriferous quartz vein stockworks, quartz iron gossans and gold bearing sulphides, indicate the prospectivity of the Spinifex Well Project.
Spinifex recent and planned exploration work
Over the years, previous explorers have carried out geochemical sampling of the vein quartz float and obtained high-grade (>30 g/t Au) gold values (see map). Since acquiring the Project, Fairstar has collected and analysed in excess of 400 geochemical samples of termite and ant nests. Further, study of airborne magnetics data from the area has defined several drilling targets.