EXPLORATION at one of Australia’s best-producing gold deposits started in the North West on Saturday.
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For more than two decades, there has been no mining activity at the Tick Hill Gold Project but drilling results could send the project back into production.
Superior Resources Limited confirmed that the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection approved a 12-month plan of operations for exploration work to be conducted on the project.
The miner is working the deposit on a 50-50 joint venture arrangement with Diatreme Resources Limited.
Drilling is being undertaken at old mine tailings dump, waste rock dump and areas with a potential for alluvial gold deposits at the surface.
“The scope of the plan of operations also enables the conduct of exploration including deep drilling aimed at identifying potential faulted or otherwise displaced extensions to the original Tick Hill gold resource,” Superior Resources said in a statement to the ASX.
“Deep drilling is not within the scope of the current program but will take place at a later date.”
The initial exploration stage is for 35 air-core drill holes within the existing tailings dam along with another 25 holes to test for alluvial potential near the open-cut pit.
“Subject to positive results being obtained from the initial phase of drilling, a systematic evaluation program comprising intensive drilling will immediately follow,” the miner said.
The prime focus of the exploration is to find a high-grade gold resource previously mined by Carpentaria Gold in the 1990s.
Carpentaria Gold was a subsidiary of MIM Holdings – the parent company of Mount Isa Mines Limited before it was taken over by Xstrata.
Diatreme’s chief executive officer Neil McIntyre was buoyant about the prospects of the project.
“Tick Hill is an attractive target due to its history of gold production and I’m confident we have the right team in place to develop its full potential,” he said.
The drilling program will use Diatreme’s crew and drilling equipment and be managed by joint venture partner Superior Resources Limited.
Mining at Tick Hill ceased in 1995 after 513,333 ounces of gold and 705,000 tonnes of ore was produced at a recovered grade of 22.6 grams a tonne gold.
Tick Hill, located 110-kilometres south-east of Mount Isa, was previously mined by open-pit with an underground mine beneath the pit. The exploration focus is on identifying a faulted extension to the earlier mined high grade mineralised zone mined at the site, averaging 22.6 grams a tonne.