An area situated to the west of Lake Acraman in the central Gawler Ranges district was taken up to explore for possible economic Olympic Dam style mineralisation, based on the licensee's evaluation of past drillhole data which indicated that a...
An area situated to the west of Lake Acraman in the central Gawler Ranges district was taken up to explore for possible economic Olympic Dam style mineralisation, based on the licensee's evaluation of past drillhole data which indicated that a number of hydrothermal alteration minerals deposited by mineralised fluids, including sericite, chlorite, haematite, fluorite and barite, which are gangue components consistent with Olympic Dam style mineralisation, had been encountered in many of the district's drillholes. However, records research indicated that previously there had been no drilling done on the subject licence area. A consultant's gravity data model commissioned during early 2003 downgraded the area's apparent potential for finding IOCG targets at economic depths below the surface, so attention was shifted to exploring for structurally-hosted gold. An initial pass of orientation calcrete sampling by vehicle-mounted auger drill was performed over gravity highs associated with interpreted buried Hiltaba Suite granite stocks, collecting 68 samples from the basement contact hidden below soil overburden. This work returned anomalous carbonate-normalised gold values of > 3 ppb Au from four of the seven sites sampled, confirming three anomalies reported in the 1990s by PIRSA when doing regional calcrete sampling, and extending two of them, as well as delineating some additional anomalies present under deep sand cover (Moornaba Sands to 8 m thick). Further field work on EL 2952 was delayed over a lengthy period from 2005 to 2009 due to the licensee being obliged to wait for resolution of conflicting Aboriginal Native Title claims to the broader Lake Gairdner region, and then to seek approval for specific on-ground access to conduct a planned programme of drilling. Details of many Aboriginal heritage sites to be avoided were provided by the recognised custodians to the licensee on 3/10/2007, but when a replacement licence (EL 3995) was granted on 5/12/2007, formal permission to enter the land had to be re-sought, and a positive reply to this request was not given until 4/6/2009. In the interim waiting period, Falcon undertook further office-based target generation and refinement. Its geophysical data manipulations undertaken during 2009-2010 indicated afresh that the region covered by EL 3995 contains key geophysical attributes that may reflect a large Olympic Dam or Prominent Hill - style IOCG system, in addition to showing potential for Tunkillia type high-grade gold occurrences, as the detailed reviews of the geophysical data had disclosed several major structural intersections and coincident demagnetised zones that may reflect pervasive quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration zones possibly related to high-grade gold mineralisation. High frequency edge-detection filters were applied to the magnetic and gravity datasets to better define discrete structural targets, major lithological contacts and granite intrusive bodies. The existing calcrete geochemical data were levelled to regolith units and reprocessed to produce a series of images used for target generation. An ongoing work programme, comprising infill calcrete sampling over two conceptual geochemical and gravity anomalous fault intersection targets, and the conduct of exploratory vertical aircore drilling at 100 m hole spacing to follow up both a promising calcrete gold anomaly (maximum 23 ppb Au) at Sisters West and a previous downhole gold intercept of 6 m @ 1g/t Au from 12 m depth made at Deep Well, was planned in detail but never executed. Instead, in late January 2011 the company decided to surrender its Gawler Ranges ELs 3995 and 3996 and to concentrate its future activities, including other drilling scheduled for 2011, elsewhere within SA on its now prioritised tenements that are located in the Peake and Denison Ranges.
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