Unlocking South Australia's Mineral and Energy Potential - A Plan for Accelerating Exploration. PACE Copper Discovery Drilling (drilling partnerships with DSD and industry) : Year 9 partnership no. DPY9-44 - Benagerie Dome. Drilling project final report.
Created: 12 Nov 2024 Revised: 12 Nov 2024

A PACE Initiative - subsidised collaborative drilling programme has been completed by Havilah Resources Limited between February and June 2017 on its EL 5873 Benagerie and ML 6346 (Portia gold mine) ground holdings in the central western Curnamona...

A PACE Initiative - subsidised collaborative drilling programme has been completed by Havilah Resources Limited between February and June 2017 on its EL 5873 Benagerie and ML 6346 (Portia gold mine) ground holdings in the central western Curnamona Craton of SA. The grant of funds from the SA Government was awarded to allow the company to drill test several new enticing copper-gold and gold targets, which it had highlighted by making a review of Pasminco - Werrie Gold, MMG and Havilah data focussed around the Benagerie Dome. This Mesoproterozoic basement structure is highly mineralised, and has been shown by previous exploration to be very prospective for new copper-gold and gold discoveries. The dome comprises a tectonic horst of broadly anticlinally folded, greenschist facies Palaeoproterozoic metasediments of the Willyama Supergroup (ca 1720-1640 Ma) and unconformably overlying Mesoproterozoic felsic volcanic rocks and associated igneous intrusive rocks (ca 1595-1580 Ma) of the Curnamona Craton. It has been formed by the interference of an orthogonal set of open folds with well-developed axial planar schistosity and cross cutting brittle-fracture faults. The greenschist facies metasediments, and absence of any obvious D1 layer-parallel schistosity, points to a much shallower depth of burial than elsewhere in the Curnamona Craton. On many theoretical map reconstructions of Australian proto-continental past geological components, the Curnamona Craton is shown juxtaposed to the Gawler Craton and the Mount Isa - Cloncurry Block, which are of similar age and geological history. Accordingly, similar types of mineral deposits, especially IOCG style and skarn style copper-gold deposits, would be expected to occur within the former. The drill targets which were lately put forward by Havilah for technical consideration by DPC, to establish their merit for being investigated by the PACE collaborative drilling process, fell into three specific deposit types as summarised below: 1. epithermal/hydrothermal IOCG type copper-gold mineralisation at the Bassanio prospect, which lies in the core of the Benagerie Dome, where the prospectivity is evidenced by coincident strong magnetic and gravity anomalies, plus a >40% iron content in the rocks there as recorded in previous Pasminco - Werrie Gold drill samples; 2. Skarn copper-gold mineralisation at the Croziers prospect, which is marked by a linear aeromagnetic anomaly that is located on the eastern margin of a circular granite body. Although this particular granite does not outcrop, it can be identified by coincident circular aeromagnetic and gravity lows that are characteristic of granite bodies in the region. The Pasminco - Werrie Gold exploration joint venture carried out aircore drilling over this aeromagnetic feature in 1996, which returned strongly anomalous copper (1000-3000 ppm Cu) at shallow depths in many holes, plus strongly anomalous bismuth (up to 2300 ppm Bi in hole BNGAC078) and associated tungsten (e.g. 50 m of 1239 ppm W in hole BNGAC078). 3. High grade gold lodes at the Shylock and Portia (East Portia and South Portia) prospects : past intercepts made from here included some of the highest whole rock mass gold grades ever drilled in South Australia (e.g. 23 m @ 79.4 g/t Au in Pasminco drillhole BEN0677). There has been extensive shallow aircore drilling conducted at Shylock, East Portia and South Portia in the past by both the Pasminco - Werrie Gold joint venture and by Havilah. Although some exceedingly high grade drilled gold intercepts were made, the precise nature of the bedrock mineralisation remained unknown as it had not been systematically targeted. Over the period February to June 2017, in execution of its approved PACE Year 9 Project DPY9-44, Havilah drilled 1 inclined diamond hole for 324.7 m to test the Bassanio prospect, 17 inclined RC holes for 1462 m to test the Croziers prospect, 18 aircore holes for 1950 m to test the Shylock prospect, 6 aircore holes for 722 m to test the East Portia prospect, and 12 aircore holes for 1360 m to test the South Portia prospect. At Bassanio, hole BADD009 tested a combined gravity and magnetic geophysical target, and intersected a zone of extensive brecciation, wall rock alteration and magnetite veining with comparatively little visual sulphide mineralisation, except for pyrite and occasionally some molybdenite. Magnetic susceptibility and specific gravity measurements made on the drill core show a coincident zone of more magnetic and denser rocks that are believed to explain the observed geophysical anomalies. From an exploration perspective, the extensive fracturing and brecciation of the rocks and the clear evidence of intense iron-rich alteration (evidenced by the extensive development of fine magnetite) are highly ranked indicators of favourable alteration and ground preparation here, denoting the former existence of a major mineralising system in the vicinity, by analogy with major IOCG deposits. The indicators are considered to be positive enough to warrant doing follow up diamond drilling, as the target zone is sufficiently large that a sizeable breccia-hosted massive copper sulphide deposit could easily be missed by a single drillhole. At the Croziers prospect, the PACE RC drillholes were successful in extending closer to the surface the known deeper copper mineralisation intersected by MMG's earlier diamond cored hole BNG13DD001, and also in proving that the host skarn altered sequence extends for 500 m to the north and south. Assayed anomalous Cu±Au±Fe±W±La±As is associated with the skarn alteration. Further drilling has been recommended, along with magnetic data modelling, to better define local anomalies of interest. At the Shylock prospect, the PACE aircore drillholes tested an interpreted structural corridor thought to host high grade basement gold mineralisation. Several anomalous gold assay results were returned, with the best coinciding with the base of cover “Light Grey Clay” position in hole SHAC034 (1 m @ 27.2 ppm Au). Sample washing of any hole drill cuttings intervals with gold assay results greater than 0.20 ppm Au was recommended, to test for any coarse gold. At the East Portia prospect, the PACE aircore holes tested an anomalous gold-bismuth zone. Gold results were locally weakly to moderately anomalous. Local anomalous copper results coincided with the base of oxidation. Sample washing of any hole drill cuttings intervals with gold assay results greater than 0.20 ppm Au was recommended, to test for any coarse gold. At the South Portia prospect the drilling completed to date, including the latest 12 PACE aircore holes, has not fully tested the prospect. Occurrences of the “Light Grey Clay” (LGC) containing visible (coarse) gold have been identified in the drill cuttings, and further drilling is required to define their extent. Sample washing of all LGC hole intervals, along with any anomalous gold intervals, is thus recommended. Some intervals of weakly anomalous gold are also associated with elevated Bi and As, which may therefore be of use locally as pathfinder elements.

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About this record

Record No mesac27632
Topic Geoscientific Information
Type of Resource Document
Category Type
Document Type Mineral Company Report - Mineral Exploration
Contributor
Sponsor
Tenement
Tenement Holder Havilah Resources Limited
Operator
Geological Province
Mine Name Bassanio prospect;Croziers prospect;Shylock prospect;East Portia prospect;South portia prospect;Portia copper-gold mine
Stratigraphy Curnamona Group
Commodity
Notes
Notes: PACE project code DPY9-44 : company final submission includes exploration drilling actual total cost ($ excluding Goods and Services Tax), out of which PACE Initiative funds have paid $ (excl. GST).
Geographic Locality: Eastern Lake Frome...

Notes: PACE project code DPY9-44 : company final submission includes exploration drilling actual total cost ($ excluding Goods and Services Tax), out of which PACE Initiative funds have paid $ (excl. GST). Geographic Locality: Eastern Lake Frome Plains;Benagerie Homestead Doc No: Env 13047 Drillhole: SHAC020 - SHAC037;(294648 - 294665);EPAC001 - EPAC006;(294666 - 294671);SPAC001 - SPAC012;(294672 - 294683);BADD009;(294687);CRRC001 - CRRC017;(294689 - 294705)

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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/mesac27632
Citation Price, L.A.;Price, A.T. Unlocking South Australia's Mineral and Energy Potential - A Plan for Accelerating Exploration. PACE Copper Discovery Drilling (drilling partnerships with DSD and industry) : Year 9 partnership no. DPY9-44 - Benagerie Dome. Drilling project final report. Mineral Company Report - Mineral Exploration
https://pid.sarig.sa.gov.au/document/mesac27632

Technical information

Status
Maintenance and Update Frequency
Geographic Reference GDA2020 (EPSG:7844)
Geo bounding box {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[140,-32],[140.5,-32],[140.5,-31],[140,-31],[140,-32]]]}
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Lineage