South Warren Reservoir. Progress report to licence expiry for the period 10/10/1973 to 9/10/1974.
Published: 20 Aug 1974 Created: 11 Nov 2024 Revised: 11 Nov 2024

The Ukaparinga and Southern Hills prospects lie within EL 99, a small exploration tenement located near the Warren Reservoir, 20 km south-east of Gawler. The included Ukaparinga mine area is privately held under three mineral claims, over which...

The Ukaparinga and Southern Hills prospects lie within EL 99, a small exploration tenement located near the Warren Reservoir, 20 km south-east of Gawler. The included Ukaparinga mine area is privately held under three mineral claims, over which ground Cominco Exploration Pty Ltd has taken out a 2-year option allowing it to explore there. This report reviews tonnages and grade figures given by previous explorer Crane Enfield Metals for the Ukaparinga prospect, and also the results of their exploratory drilling completed at Southern Hills prospect. The percussion and diamond drill data for Ukaparinga were re-examined and re-plotted at 1:1200 scale. These data were then projected onto plans for Relative Levels 1100, 1000 and 900 feet. On the basis of an arbitary cut-off of 0.55% Cu, the likely zones of better grade mineralisation were outlined. Consultants Minoil Services Pty Ltd, for Crane Enfield, had earlier calculated the volume between the surface and RL 700 as containing 1.3 Mt of 1.3% Cu ore, using a cut-off grade 0.5% Cu. This study indicates that the orebody volume is more likely to contain only 700,000 t of ore, and confirms that a large portion of that volume is not at present economically extractable. The Ukaparinga prospect has a strike length of 400+ feet. It has been tested by drilling in two places to a depth of RL 600, or about 600 feet below surface. One of the drillholes, DDH6, met with no mineralisation at all within the expected strike length. The other hole, DDH4, intersected only a narrow mineralised zone, and hence Crane Enfield have suggested a wedging out of the ore at depth. The current re-interpretation has concluded that the drilling in hole DDH6 stopped short, within a shear zone, before reaching the mineralisation, and at that point a bedding dip reversal has occurred. Accordingly, the Ukaparinga prospect has now been assigned additional in-depth potential. Examination of the Southern Hills prospect by Cominco in February 1971 showed that the three existing exploratory percussion drillholes had been drilled relatively close together on its western margin, and at the southern end of the main copper geochemical anomaly. Their decination attitudes limited their subsurface coverage to this margin of the prospect. In an acreage assessment made by Cominco in April 1971, prior to it attempting farm-in negotiations with Crane Enfield, it recommended that one or two new drillholes be sited centrally on the Southern Hills geochemical anomaly, and that they be directed to give wide coverage on one cross-section. Farm-in negotiations between Cominco and Crane Enfield were unsuccessful. Subsequently, application for an Exploration Licence (EL 99) was made on July 6th, 1973, when it was known that Crane Enfield had relinquished tenure of the Southern Hills property. Continued investigations undertaken by Cominco since EL 99 was granted have shown that Crane Enfield had actually drilled a further 30 percussion drillholes and 5 diamond drillholes on the Southern Hills geochemical anomaly, and that the prospect has been thoroughly tested. This drilling, which has not been documented, revealed limited widths of 1% Cu in the Ukaparinga Schist, and showed that the mapped possible tonnage of 1% Cu ore was not economically significant. Crane Enfield's latter period exploration had also included geological mapping and geochemical sampling along the favourable stratigraphic section heading south from Southern Hills to the Scott Farm group of paddocks. This work had located no further zones of copper concentration. In view of the poor encouragement given by the intensive actual exploration programme now known to have been carried out by Crane Enfield, no further work can be recommended.

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About this record

Record No mesac11748
Topic Geoscientific Information
Type of Resource Document
Category Type
Document Type Mineral Company Report - Mineral Exploration
Contributor
Sponsor Crane Enfield Metals Pty Ltd;Jones, D.
Tenement
Tenement Holder Cominco Exploration Pty Ltd;Crane Enfield Metals Pty Ltd
Operator Cominco Exploration Pty Ltd
Geological Province Adelaide Geosyncline
Mine Name Ukaparinga mine;Ukaparinga prospect;Southern Hills prospect
Stratigraphy
Commodity
Notes
Geographic Locality: Central Mount Lofty Ranges;Williamstown;South Para River;Warren Reservoir;Kitchener Fault
Doc No: Env 02428
Drillhole: Ukaparinga PDH1 - PDH47;Ukaparinga DDH1 - DDH6;Southern Hills PDH1 - PDH3;Southern Hills DDH1 - DDH5

Geographic Locality: Central Mount Lofty Ranges;Williamstown;South Para River;Warren Reservoir;Kitchener Fault Doc No: Env 02428 Drillhole: Ukaparinga PDH1 - PDH47;Ukaparinga DDH1 - DDH6;Southern Hills PDH1 - PDH3;Southern Hills DDH1 - DDH5

Language English
Metadata Standard ISO 19115-3

Citations

Use constraints License
License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Persistent identifier https://pid.sarig.sa.gov.au/document/mesac11748
Citation Hunt, F.L. 1974. South Warren Reservoir. Progress report to licence expiry for the period 10/10/1973 to 9/10/1974. Mineral Company Report - Mineral Exploration
https://pid.sarig.sa.gov.au/document/mesac11748

Technical information

Status
Maintenance and Update Frequency
Geographic Reference GDA2020 (EPSG:7844)
Geo bounding box {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[138.5,-35],[139,-35],[139,-34.5],[138.5,-34.5],[138.5,-35]]]}
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Lineage