Consolidating one of Australia's great mining jurisdictions
COOLABAH PROJECT
LOCATION AND ACCESS
The Coolabah Project is located in New South Wales, centred about 20km west of the historic mining town of Girilambone in central-west New South Wales and 520 km north-west of Sydney. Access within the Project is via the Mitchel Highway and a well-maintained network of shire roads and station tracks, as shown above. The Coolabah Project comprises four exploration licenses covering 1,177km².
HISTORY
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Girilambone Copper Mine, concentration, smelting plant and headframe (Carne 1898).
Copper was discovered at Girilambone in 1875 and production started in 1880, 1896 there was a smelter onsite and by 1907 the early-stage mining had ceased. The copper mines were reopened in the early 1990’s, the current copper operations are centred at the Tritton Copper Mine 22 km south-west of Girilambone and operated by Aeris Resources Ltd.
COOLABAH PROJECT
Geology and Mineralisation
The Girilambone Copper District is host to a cluster of deposits hosted within Ordovician aged turbidite sequences from the Girilambone basin which forms part of the Lachlan fold belt.
The deposits are characterised by massive to semi-massive pyrite and chalcopyrite sulphide occurrences.
Mineralised assemblages are dominated by pyrite with lesser chalcopyrite, gold and silver concentrations. Primary copper mineralisation occurs as banded and stringer chalcopyrite within pyritic rich units.
The principal form of exploration within the Girilambone District is via the utilisation of airborne and ground-based electromagnetic (EM) survey techniques. The EM technology is designed to detect for massive sulphide deposits to 500 metres (ground) and 300 metres (airborne) below surface. The recent Constellation discovery using airborne EM attests to the effectiveness of the exploration method for these style of deposits in the Girilambone Group.
Since modern exploration commenced in the 1980s, more than 750,000 tonnes of copper has been discovered within the Tritton area (Aeris Resources).
Exploration History and Prospectivity
Ironstone samples with botroydal goethite from EL9287
The Coolabah Project comprises four contiguous exploration licenses covering 1,177km. The project is proximal and west of the Girilambone District copper deposits.
A large number of gossan/ironstone samples were collected as part of an extensive search for base metals by North Broken Hill Limited in the 1970’s, The original geochemistry was not officially reported at the time`, the pulps from the sampling program were accessed by the Department of Primary Industries and reanalysed and reported in 2005 (Geological Survey Report No: GS2005/338).
Results of the pulp reanalysis highlighted a number of areas of anomalous copper within EL9287 (Coolabah) up to 5,500ppm copper. The district is flat with shallow residual and transported soils and these anomalous gossan/ironstone samples potentially represent weathered massive to semi-massive copper sulphide deposits similar to the nearby existing deposits.
Interpretation of the regional magnetic data shows a spatial correlation between magnetic highs and the known mineralisation. Magnetite alteration is common and interpreted to be associated with the mineralisation around the Tritton deposit.
Coolabah Project Els overlying Filtered (analytical signal) Regional Magnetics with relation to known deposits. Red points indicate untested magnetic anomalies within the Coolabah tenements
Multiple anomalous copper anomalies over a large area are observed from historical geochemical surveys.
The strongest geochemical anomaly is spatial associated with a regional airborne magnetics anomaly.
Historic rock chip copper assays (Geological Survey Report No: GS2005/338) overlying Regional Filtered (analytical signal) Magnetics, subset shows copper anomaly overlying a magnetic ‘pimple’.