An area centred over Lake Cadibarrawirracanna, which is located ~70 km east-northeast of Coober Pedy, has been explored both for possible buried Proterozoic basement-hosted IOCG-style mineralisation and for large sedimentary evaporite occurrences...
An area centred over Lake Cadibarrawirracanna, which is located ~70 km east-northeast of Coober Pedy, has been explored both for possible buried Proterozoic basement-hosted IOCG-style mineralisation and for large sedimentary evaporite occurrences of Mg-sulphate salts. Prior to and during the first licence year, Minotaur's review of open file geophysical and geological data and historic exploration reports for the selected areas revealed that they had on record promising yet barely tested shows of both rare earth element - rich bedrock hydrothermal alteration iron oxide mineral assemblages and, within the cover, secondary stratiform magnesium sulphate precipitates. Reports reviewed mentioned that significant quantities of Mg-sulphate salts had been defined at Giddi Giddina Creek more than 25 years ago by CRA Exploration, and were regarded as forming a geologically rare mineral deposit. The principal magnesium evaporite mineral species then found to be present are bloedite (MgSO4Na2SO4.4H2O), epsomite (MgSO4.7H2O) and hexahydrite (MgSO4.6H2O), and Minotaur thought it likely that additional occurrences would exist within the region, so it took out two licences to cover perceived prospective ground, the subject EL 4981 plus a more fragmented EL 4980 located closer to Coober Pedy, on three separate pieces of ground lying just beyond the eastern scarp of the Stuart Range. Near a NW trending fault with associated flanking magnetic and gravity high anomalies which lies close to the western boundary of EL 4981, magnetite and pyrite-rich alteration which was encountered by BHP Minerals in 1992 within its drillhole NC9202 was found to contain highly anomalous rare earths (up to 13,600 ppm Ce and 11,900 ppm La). Minotaur believed that this could indicate the former passage through the fault zone of IOCG-style hydrothermal fluids which were consistent in character with those it had detected evidence of during work done further south within the Mount Woods Inlier. It therefore proposed that discrete magnetic and gravity anomalies proximal to NW-trending faults should be the focus of future investigations for Cu-Au mineralisation, and recommended that detailed gravity surveys be acquired to determine if haematite-rich (+Cu, Au, REE) alteration is also present. North-east of Coober Pedy in the vicinity of Minotaur's ELs 4980, the drilled depth to the top of basement is only around 40 m in the west, but heading eastwards from there onto EL 4981 it increases dramatically to more than 400 m, especially across a series of NW-trending faults. Adjacent magnetic and gravity anomalies are broad and poorly defined. During licence Year 2, no work was done. Tenure was allowed to lapse at the end of the year.
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