An area located adjacent to the southern margin of the Gawler Ranges that includes some exposures of Mesoproterozoic Gawler Range Volcanics (GRV), and which at its south-eastern corner lies approximately 12 km north-west of the Menninnie Dam...
An area located adjacent to the southern margin of the Gawler Ranges that includes some exposures of Mesoproterozoic Gawler Range Volcanics (GRV), and which at its south-eastern corner lies approximately 12 km north-west of the Menninnie Dam Pb-Zn-Ag deposit, has been taken up to explore for possible economic gold and base metal mineralisation buried in that locality, particularly that of Menninnie Dam style, or indeed of any other deposit style the formation of which was penecontemporaneous with the Hiltaba-GRV magmatic and mineralising event. During the first licence year, the commencement of on-ground activities became delayed pending resolution of issues in extending an existing Native Title Part 9b Agreement for exploration to include the subject Kolendo tenement. In the meantime, the licensee acquired a detailed helicopter-borne Versatile Time Domain EM (VTEM) and aeromagnetic combined survey over its contiguous ELs 3535, 4285 and 4669, when a survey subset of 135.2 line km covering selected parts of EL 4285 were flown on 6th May 2010 along north-south lines using a 41 m nominal terrain clearance for the EM sensor. The aim of the VTEM survey was to obtain information to assist with predicting the distribution of prospective Middleback Subgroup stratigraphic unit correlatives (or look-alikes) beneath the southern parts of the GRV. Terramin's recent exploration work in the Menninnie Dam area had suggested that there may be a strong component of dextral shear along spaced dislocation zones present throughout the northern Cleve Domain, and this factor may mean that there is potential for structural repetitions of prospective carbonate-rich rock packages beneath the GRV in the Kolendo area. During the second licence year, processing of the new airborne EM and magnetic survey data got underway after an unforeseen delay in receiving them from the acquisition contractor. Because gaining ready access onto most of the subject licence area was still hampered by unresolved legalities, pending finalisation of an Indigenous Land Use Agreement for it, the licensee was only able to commence restricted surface geochemical exploration during June 2011. Reconnaissance surficial soil sampling of disturbed corridors along tracks and fence lines was undertaken at 100 m sample point spacing (1068 samples collected), for preliminary assaying via a portable XRF spectroscopic instrument. The minus 2 mm soil fraction was analysed from material in part collected by power auger drilling down to a maximum depth of 50 mm. Some encouraging discrete and clustered anomalies in lead were discerned, which warrant follow-up sampling to establish their validity as low mobility trace metal dispersion markers originating from within or below the GRV sequence. During the third licence year, reconnaissance PXRF soil sampling done previously had to be replicated by sample hand sieving and re-scanning, because the the Innov-X Omega 400 MMPL instrument that had been used in the field during Year 2 was belatedly recognised to have been malfunctioning intermittently. However, this re-analysis of both 2 mm to 80 mesh and minus80 mesh soil grain size fractions did not yield results significantly different from those acquired and reported in 2011. The newer PXRF analytical results are reported herein. Processing and modelling of airborne EM and magnetic data from the reconnaissance VTEM survey lines flown over Kolendo in May 2010 were completed in November 2011, and recommendations for follow-up ground EM and IP surveying were received from the geophysical consultant in July 2012. In other activity, Terramin entered the final stages of negotiating with several potential JV partners wishing to participate in exploration over all 5 tenements held by Menninnie Metals Pty Ltd and MMG Australia Ltd. Terramin expects that soon the details of a JV agreement will have progressed to the point where joint exploration activities can commence by November 2012. A likely programme of new work is described.
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