I did some regional work in this area around Woodlawn in the 1990s-2000s. A few points:
-Currawang was originally found and mined using ground geophysics by Jododex in the 1970s, just after Woodlawn was discovered, there was no old workings and only very weakly anomalous outcrop at Currawang. There is another historical mine (the original Currawang mine) just to the west but which hasnt had much drilling, for reasons I don't really understand. It was a significant copper producer in the 1870s-1880s, one of the earliest copper mines in Australia. Cornish miners in those days were confident there would be other lodes found in the area. Woodlawn itself was also missed by the old miners, with only low grade gossan outcrop in which shafts were sunk in the 1870s-80s but which missed the high grade ore by less than 1m; this was discovered after mining commenced in the 1970s.
-BHP drilled a major area to the north around Wet Lagoon in the 1970s to 1980s and intercepted long strikes of mostly thin mineralisation, generally too thin to mine. There is still some potential in this area. Strangely enough, there are also some significant widths and hits of gold in the Wet Lagoon area, away from the base metals, which are not well understood, as it doesn't seem to fit into an orthodox gold model. A possible analogy might be the gold-rich Henty Mine in Tasmania, which is thought to relate to a remobilised gold-rich VMS system. Somebody needs to have a look at this gold a bit harder, it is sub-economic.
-The problem in the last ~20 years has always been the same, not enough money and risk appetite for wildcat style drill targets away from the main Woodlawn mine. With the startup of the mine again, this might change, or a lucky hit around Currawang or somewhere. The grades are very high at Woodlawn partly because the mineralisation has been remobilised into structures. It is quite plausible there is more such high grades lodes around, but its not cheap to find them with this type of wildcat drilling, and nobody generally wants to fund it.
The above information is publicly available and i have no connection to the company.
HRR Price at posting:
8.6¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
