During the 2008-2009 project reporting year (Year 13), Adelaide Resources Limited continued to review all of the past exploration in the Moonta region. This disclosed 190 surface gold anomalies that the company thought warranted further...
During the 2008-2009 project reporting year (Year 13), Adelaide Resources Limited continued to review all of the past exploration in the Moonta region. This disclosed 190 surface gold anomalies that the company thought warranted further consideration, because their sources remained unexplained. The anomalies were therefore ranked and the most promising were proposed to be explored further with check surface calcrete geochemical sampling and follow up drilling. The highest ranked gold-in-calcrete only anomaly was seen to occur near Paskeville, as a coherent 3.5 km x 1.2 km anomaly with a highest gold value of 5.2 ppb Au, plus associated anomalous copper and silver. During Year 14 of the project, in January-February 2010, Adelaide Resources conducted infill calcrete sampling in seven anomalous localities found by previous surface calcete sampling done by Red Metal, BHP and MIM. A total of 1280 predominantly nodular calcrete samples were collected. In some places the calcrete formed massive sheets which required use of a mechanical breaker to obtain samples. The assay results obtained from six of the areas sampled were encouraging, with highest values well above the established Moonta region anomalous thresholds of 1.4 ppb for gold and 15 ppm for copper. During Year 15 of the project, Adelaide Resources conducted further surface calcrete sampling over the period January to April 2011, and prior to that commenced reconnaissance bedrock traverse drilling at the Anomaly 4 and Willamulka locations in May-June 2010. At Anomaly 4, 25 vertical RAB/aircore holes were drilled for a total penetration of 1223.9 m to test an interpreted fold hinge, and at Willamulka, 28 inclined aircore holes were drilled for 1532 m to test an inferred northwestwards dipping fault zone. Many interesting but subeconomic gold and copper intercepts were revealed at both prospects which warranted further evaluation. A total of 3198 additional calcrete samples were collected on both regional and infill grid spacings; this work enhanced the tenor of anomalism in several places and also extended some existing anomalies. In general the gold response gave better, more coherent anomalies than did copper. Between January and April 2011, additional infill drilling was conducted on a single farm at Willamulka, of 79 inclined aircore holes for 6399 m. 4141 downhole composite 3-metre drill cuttings samples were submitted for laboratory assaying of a 43-element suite. The results were valuable in outlining a distinct zone of higher grade mineralisation referred to as 'Shoot A', which appeared to persist for 550 m along the structure and remained open to the NE and SW. Here maximum values of 2 m @ 20.85 g/t Au and 5 m @ 2.52% Cu were obtained in holes WAC74 and WAC75 respectively. During Year 16 of the project, Adelaide Resources undertook additional aircore drilling into bedrock plus limited deeper diamond drilling to appraise newly found mineralisation. A total of 170 aircore holes were drilled on three prospects (29 holes at Willamulka, 31 holes at Copper Hill East, and 110 holes at Paskeville) for a total of 12,583.8 m. Five rotary mud precollared diamond holes (two each at the Willamulka and Wombat prospects and one at the Paskeville prospect) comprised a total 212.6 m of precollars plus 1222.71 m of NQ3/HQ3 diamond coring. 5983 drill cuttings and 588 half core samples were submitted to the ALS laboratory for multi-element geochemical analysis. Copper (+/- gold) mineralisation was intersected at all four prospects. The Paskeville prospect in particular gave strongly encouraging results, revealing a relatively broad, coherent body of shallow, low to moderate grade copper-dominant mineralisation over an unclosed strike length of at least 300 m, with indications of true width estimated to be >130 m at its south-eastern end. The drilling at Willamulka continued to show strongly encouraging copper and gold geochemistry at shallow depth, including in hole WAC136 – 14 m @ 1.04% Cu + 0.32 g/t Au from 30 m, including 5 m @ 1.94% Cu + 0.65 g/t Au from 30 m, and 3 m @ 1.07% Cu + 0.66 g/t Au (46-49 m). During Year 17 of the Moonta Project, on renewed EL 4961, Adelaide Resources drilled one rotary mud precollared diamond hole for 353.4 m at Paskeville in November 2012, plus 166 aircore holes for 5229 m in March 2013 along further drill traverses across three prospects, Paskeville, Wombat, and Alford West (the last located 10 km north of Kadina). 2132 composite 5-metre downhole samples were sent for laboratory assaying, plus some additional individual 1-metre samples from hole intervals where visible mineralisation was noted in the field or where later in situ FPXRF spectrometric scans of laid out drill returns had indicated that they contained elevated levels of copper. At Paskeville the latest drilling results, combined with those from previous drilling, indicated that the highest grade copper values are contained within a broad, >300 m long and ~50 m true width north-west striking zone of sheared metapelite which remained open along strike and at depth below 90 m from the surface. This zone comprises several steeply north-east dipping, 5 m to 20 m thick, variably quartz veined copper-rich lodes. Malachite, azurite and chalcocite dominate the ore mineralogy near the surface, and chalcopyrite and chalcocite dominate at depth where they accompany pyrite. At Wombat, the latest aircore drilling to test the mineralised zone within weathered and strongly metasomatically altered Wandearah Formation metasediments occupying an east-west striking part of the Alford Shear Zone returned only modest copper-gold grades, reflecting the trace visible malachite in the drill returns. The shear zone is interpreted as having a ~70 m true width, and anomalous copper within it persists to >300 m vertical depth as demonstrated by recent diamond hole WOMDD001 (best intercepts 5 m @ 1.3% Cu + 0.04 g/t Au from 195 m, plus 66 m @ 1.04% Cu + 0.03 g/t Au from 236 m downhole). Adelaide Resources has interpreted the Alford Shear Zone as having once been a significant fluid pathway, the centre of which is now a magnetite poor argillic metasomatite and the flanks of which are strongly magnetic metasomatites. At Alford West, Adelaide Resources' interpretation of past drilling data had revealed the presence of two steeply north dipping, sub parallel, high grade copper-gold lodes that strike east-west and are spaced ~ 50 m apart. In its maiden drill programme there the company put in 25 new inclined aircore holes along six traverses 100 m apart to try to confirm the location of the mineralisation. This had early success on the westernmost, first traverse attempted, as its southwards inclined hole ALWAC003 intersected 7 m @ 1.86% Cu + 0.45 g/t Au, while lower grade intercepts were present in two of the other holes. On the next traverse 100 m to the east, inclined hole ALWAC006 achieved a shallower intercept of 5 m @ 0.92% Cu + 0.15 g/t Au from 45 m downhole, and a substantial intersection of 10 m @ 4.23% Cu + 0.20 g/t Au commencing from 57 m downhole. Here the the dark grey copper bearing mineral is considered likely to be chalcocite (Cu2S), one of the highest grade copper ore types, with 79.9% copper by weight. Adjacent hole ALWAC007 went better still, as it intersected 20 m @ 4.20% Cu + 0.27 g/t Au from 32 m downhole, this containing a bonanza hit of 8 m @ 8.67% Cu + 0.49 g/t Au between 32 and 40 m, i.e. at about 28 m vertically below the surface. Other excellent intercepts were made on the other four drill traverses, confirming the high grade copper occurrence. However, defining the boundaries of the high grade lodes was confused by uncertainty in the exact location of the historical holes relative to Adelaide Resources’ holes, and possibly by needing to understand the effects of lateral remobilisation of metal due to supergene processes operating in the regolith. Nevertheless, the drilling undertaken to date had tested only a 300 m long portion of WMC's original 3 km long auger geochemical anomaly, and the potential to discover additional high grade copper and gold lodes within the broader Alford West area was considered excellent. During licence Year 18, Adelaide Resources performed historic geochemical data capture, soil geochemical sampling and exploratory aircore drilling. A very large legacy hard copy dataset of bedrock auger sampling geochemical data was digitised and entered into a GIS database for enabling its display and spatial interrogation against other geological, geophysical and geochemical datasets already in use by the licensee. To test the FPXRF instrument as a new prospecting tool, 13,822 in-field X ray fluorescence spectrochemical scans were made of soils overlying both argillic and magnetic metasomatite (metasomatised metasediments) bedrock in the northern portion of EL 4961, just south of the Tickera Granite and adjacent to the Alford Shear Zone. The FPXRF programme discovered two multi-element anomalies, Blue Tongue and FrostY, and refined the footprints of another seven existing calcrete or soil geochemical anomalies down to 50 m x 25 m grid precision. 263 aircore holes for 16,929.5 m were drilled, mainly on two priority prospects located 10-11 km north of Kadina, i.e. Blue Tongue and Alford West, and at the latter, on separate targets within the Larwood, Bruce and Six Ways zones. The Alford West prospect is defined by a 3500 m long copper anomaly evident in geochemical data from shallow bedrock auger drilling completed by past explorers in the 1970s. The above target zones are discrete areas internal to it that are strongly copper anomalous (>0.2% Cu). The Six Ways Zone is the largest anomaly, at around 2 km long, but has had only eight deep holes drilled into it previously. In 2014, Adelaide Resources drilled 47 widely spaced southwards dipping aircore holes for 3079 m there, that averaged 87 m total depth, along seven north–south traverses. A best intercept of 23 m @ 1.47% Cu from below 7 m downhole, which included 11 m @ 2.23% Cu from below 10 m downhole, was recorded in hole ALWAC171. The mineralisation, which consists of malachite, extends downwards to the base of the cover: no gold is present. However, significant lead mineralisation occurs at the western end of the zone in holes ALWAC272 and ALWAC273, grading up to 3.3% Pb within a 20 m thick lode that contains about 1% Pb on average. The Bruce Zone is interpreted to comprise a number of east-west trending, sub-parallel lodes that carry molybdenum mineralisation as well as copper. In 2014, 72 x southwards dipping aircore holes for 4763 m that averaged 66 m total depth were completed there along seven north–south traverses. Best intercepts within saprolite overlying an iron-rich metasomatite were as follows: ALWAC261 - 11 m @ 1.52% Cu + 0.04 g/t Au from below 77 m downhole. The mineralisation persists to this hole's final depth, with the last 2 m having a very high grade of 3.23% Cu as chalcocite; and 20 m away to the south in ALWAC285 (where this hole was interpreted to have hit the same lode ~30 m updip) - 9 m @ 2.75% Cu + 0.15 g/t Au from below 41 m downhole. This intersection also persisted to the end of the hole, with the final 2 m having bonanza grade 8.99% Cu. The Larwood Zone is interpreted to comprise a number of east-west trending, sub-parallel lodes. It is also characterised by significant associated molybdenum mineralisation. Here in 2013-2014, 50 x southwards dipping aircore holes for 3688.5 m that averaged 74 m total depth were completed along eight north–south traverses. Holes on three adjacent traverses made best intercepts that included 16 m @ 2.38% Cu from 60 m downhole in ALWAC048; 20 m @ 4.20% Cu from 32 m in ALWAC007; and 20 m @ 1.76% Cu from 36 m in ALWAC038. In addition, hole ALWAC056 returned 68 m @ 352 ppm Mo, with individual 1-metre drill cuttings sample assay values ranging up to 1180 ppm Mo. The molybdenum mineralisation coincides with copper and gold, but doesn’t display significant depletion in the upper saprolite as do those metals. Because current drilling evidence showed that all four of the surface copper anomalous zones at Alford West remained open at depth, plans were made to proceed to deeper RC or diamond drill testing to further evaluate the supergene enriched lower saprolite and then to probe the distribution of primary sulphide ore in the basement saprock. Metasedimentary bedrock tested by the holes put in at Blue Tongue in several places displays evidence of metasomatic alteration and veining, with malachite present within the weathered saprolite. Chemical analysis of the drill samples indicated that a ~70 m wide, low grade <0.5% copper mineralised zone occurs there, apparently lacking sulphides as drilled and thus suggesting that the depth of oxidation of the primary mineralisation extends deeper than that, allowing for the possibility of a deeper supergene enriched sulphidic target zone. Importantly, the drilling at Blue Tongue confirmed that the FPXRF copper soil anomaly which defined this target is sourced by the underlying copper mineralisation, presenting a strong validation of the technique’s application in the local regolith dispersive setting of 5 to 10 m thickness of transported cover. During licence Year 19, Adelaide Resources performed historic drilling data capture and undertook surface geochemical FPXRF sampling, ground magnetic surveying, plus further aircore drilling and also RC drilling, seeking downdip and along strike extensions to known mineralisation. Data from historical diamond drillholes which are located around the West Doora and Alford West prospects were validated and then loaded into the company’s DataShed database. 24,429 soil samples collected from sites around the Alford West prospect and from other places within the Alford Shear Zone 'copper belt', e.g. the Tomahawk prospect, were analysed using a FPXRF spectrochemical instrument. A ground magnetic survey of 116 line km acquired at Alford West that entailed 13,804 readings showed that the best copper results from aircore, diamond and auger drilling are found on the edges the magnetic highs over smaller second order magnetic anomalies. The areas of copper mineralisation also coincide closely to the deepest troughs in the gravity data. Consequently, it was interpreted that either a) the on-magnetic argillic altered Oorlano Metasomatite, or b) places within the magnetic metasomatite that have become de-magnetised around significant structures, are acting as the hosts to the bulk of copper mineralisation. Either way, those areas showing high copper concentrations in FPXRF scans and from auger or aircore drilling, that coincide with low magnetic and low gravity signatures, it was decided should now be treated as high priority targets. In May 2014, surface FPXRF soil geochemical sampling conducted at Tomahawk, located ~5 km east of Alford West, delineated a large copper anomaly. In February 2015, 33 aircore holes for 2769 m were drilled along six traverses to test the anomaly. Low grade mineralisation was intersected in several holes, including 6 m @ 0.25% Cu from 3 m downhole in TAC010, and 6 m @ 0.21% Cu from 40 m downhole in TAC007. Anomalous gold is also present, with TAC019 returning 1 m @ 0.60 g/t Au, and TAC004 returning 1 m @ at 0.52 g/t Au. In November 2014, a drilling campaign consisting of 8 aircore holes for 883 m was conducted at the Bruce and Larwood zones, which was augmented by another campaign of 12 aircore holes for 1069 m which was conducted in January 2015. The results of this work showed that coherent bodies of copper, gold and molybdenum mineralisation grading as before extend for a combined strike length of over 1.3 km. In April 2015, initial deeper testing of the Bruce and Larwood zones was accomplished by drilling 8 inclined RC holes for 1618 m. The seven successful holes encountered variably weathered saprock containing low to medium grade primary copper mineralisation existing as chalcocite, chalcopyrite and some native copper, plus minor molybdenite (21 m @ 725 ppm Mo in hole AWRC005). The mineralised intercepts made at both zones remained open at depth (ca. 280 m). During licence Year 20, Adelaide Resources updated its in-house 3D geological models of the Bruce, Larwood, Six Ways and Blue Tongue copper mineralised zones at the Alford West prospect, and began a detailed process of JORC-compliant resource estimation for Bruce and Larwood, using all current drillhole data from there to construct a robust block model of each zone. These models were reviewed by consultant Mining Plus, who noted some issues with the quality of past-collected data being relied upon, which affected the calculations in ways that made parts of the internal use inferred resource mapping assumptions non - JORC compliant. A number of recommendations were made for improving the quality and quantity of the Alford West dataset to meet JORC 2012 guidelines and allow an Inferred Mineral Resource to be estimated at a future date. Discussions were entered into with two potential joint venture partners. During licence Year 21, no work was done. Peninsula Resources sought a buyer for the Moonta Project, and at year end an interested party remained in the offing. During licence Year 22, during the reporting period, to 11th April 2018, Andromeda Metals (Operator) evaluated the potential for Wombat prospect and Bruce zone of the Alford West prospect to be mined with the innovative hydrometallurgical in-situ recovery (ISR) production process. A significant Exploration Target was estimated for the Wombat and Bruce deposits. Preliminary copper solubility testwork was undertaken on composite samples from Wombat prospect diamond holes and Bruce zone RC holes. Simple preliminary leach tests on composite samples confirm copper solubility of up to 65%, and lixiviant studies to optimise copper into solution appear warranted. During the year discussions were held with three third parties interested in potentially dealing into the project. At the end of the year discussions with one of the parties were ongoing.