southern cross, page-13

ground zero

perhaps you should double check.

before drilling the first hole at roxby downs, wmc had spent 6 years, in an office, working on some concept, from an idea from some guy called tim o'driscoll.

the work involved flying aerial surveys over a large part of south australia - and after 6 years of work, the company took out the relevant exploration license in 1975, and drilled the first hole in june 1975.

roxby downs (ie olympic dam) had nothing to do with some driller ,drilling a bit deeper. "western mining" were targeting something, which was very deep. there was no surface expression of the orebody

the following from http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/olympic.htm

"The discovery of the Olympic Dam deposit, three hundred metres below the surface of the Stuart Shelf, was made in a Melbourne Office.....

....After six years of studies, including model building, studies of geological and geophysical maps, and numerous aero-magnetic surveys, Western Mining Corporation took out Exploration Licence 190 in 1975. In June of that year the first hole, (RD1) drilled by Ted Whenan to locate the expected copper was a failure. A month later they did find the copper. "

some guy called david upton, has written a book about "western mining" - and their strategy.

anyway, watso suggest that you check out tim o'driscoll, and his lineaments (which was central to the roxby downs discovery). the carapateena deposit (for which oz minerals paid a couple of hundred million dollars and the first hole was also a dud), was a target, which was highlighted in the same work. interestingly, ERO, have a similar target.

western mining had spent 20 years looking for copper - and copper bore, was one of the prospects that they found - yet they walked away from it, despite several good hits.

anyway, if sxg have a mill in the area, then all of a sudden a smallish deposit, could be ok