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Rushworth Project
EL 4723 (Nagambie 100%)
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This Project of 40 km2 currently exists in two parts, Rushworth North and Rushworth South (Whroo). The Project area covers part of the historic Rushworth and Whroo Goldfields where total past production is estimated to have been 404,000 oz of gold with a field average of 12 g/t of gold. 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.
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| Figure 1 Rushworth Project Areas |
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The company relinquished approximately half of the area previously held following the results of a program of 15 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 Frenchman’s and White Hills.
Five costeans over the White Hills area at Whroo were disappointing in that no anomalous gold values were encountered. Exploration emphasis on the Whroo portion of the Exploration Licence has now shifted to the west in the Doctors Gully area, which will be subject to confirmatory mapping supported by sampling prior to drill planning.
The Frenchman’s Prospect at Rushworth (Figure 2) was subject to a 10 costean program and sampling confirmed wide areas of low grade gold mineralisation, which indicate probable supergene enrichment and dispersal near surface. This enrichment may continue to depths of 40 metres as indicated by drilling by previous work. Maximum assay values were 1.12 g/t gold, 178 ppm As (avg 14), and 371 ppm Sb (avg 9). Overall, 25 samples returned gold grades greater than 0.1 ppm see Table 5.
Table 1 Summary of gold intersections at Frenchmans
| Trench |
From |
To |
Intersection |
Au |
As |
Sb |
| RUF02 |
2 |
12 |
10 |
0.23 |
111 |
20 |
| RUF03A |
8 |
10 |
2 |
0.31 |
135 |
22 |
| RUF03A |
0 |
12 |
10 |
0.10 |
90 |
14 |
| RUF04 |
20 |
26 |
6 |
0.13 |
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| RUF04 |
36 |
38 |
2 |
0.22 |
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| RUF05 |
0 |
20 |
20 |
0.22 |
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73.5 |
| RUF06 |
12 |
14 |
2 |
0.37 |
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The wide zones of low grade gold values are encouraging. The gold value in RUF06 corresponds to a drill intersection in 1988 of 5.65 g/t gold from 39 to 40 metres. Other drilling in the area is not as encouraging, with wide zones of low tenor gold mineralisation intersected.
Structural analysis of data obtained from the costean program has led to a better understanding of the structural controls on mineralisation, giving confidence in target selection for future RC drilling.
Figure 2 - Also available as a PDF File (880K)
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