EL 4723 (Nagambie 100%)

The Rushworth Project area of 68 km² currently exists in two parts, Rushworth North and Rushworth South (Whroo) covered by Exploration Licence 4723 encompasses the historic Rushworth and Whroo goldfields where total past production is estimated to have been 404,000 oz of gold with an field average of 12 grams of gold per tonne. These recorded figures are considered to greatly underestimate the total amount of gold won from the field. The gold within the sandstone beds most probably is derived from fine gold within arsenopyrite, stibnite and pyrite that has been released due to oxide weathering above the water table.

This area structurally and stratigraphically bears a similarity to the Nagambie gold deposit. East of Nagambie fine gold has recently been mined from Late Silurian to Early Devonian sediments of the Waranga Formation which forms the basement for much of the area of EL 4723.

At Nagambie, which is located about 25 kilometres to the south-south-west of the Rushworth area, gold mineralised zones occur within silicified and limonite impregnated strata subparallel to the axis of an east-west trending anticline. There is a strong correlation at Nagambie between gold and highly anomalous arsenic and antimony. Areas within the Rushworth project area are also known to contain anomalous antimony and or arsenic associated with gold. Both the Nagambie mine area and the Rushworth project area contain east-west trending, north dipping reverse faults with footwall anticlines. These reverse faults within EL 4723 are located just to the north of Balaclava Hill and in the vicinity of Dunlop Hill.

Evaluation work during 2008 - 2009 has reduced the initial 17 identified prospects to four prospects. A program of 12 costeans to test Silurian-Devonian sediments for disseminated and narrow vein gold mineralisation and to enhance the understanding of geological controls on mineralisation will be carried out at two of the projects, Frenchman’s and White Hills.