Unlocking South Australia's Mineral and Energy Potential - A Plan for Accelerating Exploration. Theme 2 (drilling partnerships with PIRSA and industry) : Year 1 partnership no. DPY1-11, Moseley Dam mineral prospect. Project final report.
Created: 11 Nov 2024 Revised: 11 Nov 2024

As part of its programme of exploration for Neoproterozoic stratiform copper mineralisation in the Mount Gunson district, based on prior target generation through soil geochemical sampling and electrical geophysical surveying, Gunson Resources...

As part of its programme of exploration for Neoproterozoic stratiform copper mineralisation in the Mount Gunson district, based on prior target generation through soil geochemical sampling and electrical geophysical surveying, Gunson Resources successfully applied for PACE Year 1 funding to help complete further stratigraphic/exploratory drilling at the Mount Moseley prospect on EL 3022. The aim was to help unravel the diagenetic and lithostratigraphic facies relationships of the Tapley Hill Formation where it onlaps a Pandurra Formation basement high, a proven target-prone situation as demonstrated elsewhere on the Stuart Shelf, e.g. in CSR's past work at Emmie Bluff and Lake Windabout. Previous work in the area undertaken by Gunson Resources had been the testing of soil geochemical anomalies overlying places where the objective Tapley Hill Formation is wrapped around an elongate headland of Pandurra Formation pre-Adelaidean basement, forming a large sweeping depositional embayment which remained mostly untested by the earlier CSR drilling. The drilling of hole MGD33 here in May 2004 over subtle gravity and IP anomalies, seeking a thin pinchout fringe of Tapley Hill Formation that hopefully would be enriched in dolomite and sulphides, instead intersected a thick shale sequence which indicated that the pinchout must lie further northwards nearer the basement high. Thus the subject PACE drilling project was devised to investigate whether such is the case. After a lengthy delay in project execution caused by the lack of available drilling rigs during 2004-2005, the company in early 2006 was able to drill a series of shallow RC holes (MGC36 to 39) plus 2 precollared rotary core holes (MGD40 & 41), for a total of 484 m of rotary penetration and 143.9 m of core drilling. These drillholes have been useful in further defining the geometry of the Neoproterozoic basin, with hole MGC39 probably just clipping the very edge of the Tapley Hill Formation, although varying thicknesses of this unit in the other holes also suggest that some broad folding is complicating the geological picture. Moreover, the Pandurra Formation basement high has now been shown to have a flanking ridge which intrudes the Moseley Dam embayment (as at CRA OK87), and which could have acted to reduce basin fluid circulation and thereby favour the concentration of organic material, forming an environment more conducive to the precipitation of copper sulphides. Thus the exploration model being followed by Gunson Resources is still regarded by it as valid, particularly since holes MGC38 and MGD40 located nearest the apparent Tapley Hill Formation pinchout edge yielded respectively the best Cu values of 6735 ppm and 4865 ppm, in conformity with model empirical predictions that place the best base metal concentrations in this anomalous unit at its upper and lower margins, especially where it is only 10 m thick or less. A broad arcuate band which follows the interpreted Tapley Hill Formation shoreline has consequently been identified as having the highest potential for finding significant grades of copper mineralisation, and the licensee's future drilling efforts will be directed at this play.

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About this record

Record No mesac21076
Topic Geoscientific Information
Type of Resource Document
Category Type
Document Type Mineral Company Report - Mineral Exploration
Contributor Hamish Paterson and Associates Pty Ltd
Sponsor
Tenement EL 3022
Tenement Holder Gunson Resources Ltd
Operator
Geological Province
Mine Name Moseley Dam prospect
Stratigraphy
Commodity
    Notes
    Notes: PACE project code DPY1-11 : company final submission includes exploration drilling actual total cost ($67,246.00 excluding Goods and Services Tax), out of which PACE Initiative funds have paid $27,500.00 (excl. GST).
    Geographic Locality:...

    Notes: PACE project code DPY1-11 : company final submission includes exploration drilling actual total cost ($67,246.00 excluding Goods and Services Tax), out of which PACE Initiative funds have paid $27,500.00 (excl. GST). Geographic Locality: Mount Moseley;Oakden Hills Station Doc No: Env 11205 Drillhole: MGC36 - MGC39;(218994 - 218997);MGD40;(212210);MGD41;(212211);MGD33;(201416) Drillhole Unit No: 6234 00070;THROUGH;6234 00076

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    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/mesac21076
    Citation Paterson, H.L. Unlocking South Australia's Mineral and Energy Potential - A Plan for Accelerating Exploration. Theme 2 (drilling partnerships with PIRSA and industry) : Year 1 partnership no. DPY1-11, Moseley Dam mineral prospect. Project final report. Mineral Company Report - Mineral Exploration
    https://pid.sarig.sa.gov.au/document/mesac21076

    Technical information

    Status
    Maintenance and Update Frequency
    Geographic Reference GDA2020 (EPSG:7844)
    Geo bounding box {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[136.5,-32],[137,-32],[137,-31],[136.5,-31],[136.5,-32]]]}
    Purpose
    
                        
                        
    
                        
                      
    Lineage