Minnie Creek Project
The Minnie Creek project is located in the Gascoyne province of Western Australia and hosts a relatively new (1995) and significant discovery of molybdenum. The economic widths and grades of molybdenum that have been intersected by the limited drilling completed to date indicate the Minnie Creek project has the potential to host a resource of world class size. The project area also contains a range of newly discovered outcrops with significant values of molybdenum, copper, gold, tungsten and uranium.
The Minnie Creek project area is located 242 km north-east of Carnarvon in Western Australia. Most of the area is underlain by the Proterozoic age Minnie Creek Batholith, a member of the Moorarie Supersuite granite terrain.
Within the project area the most advanced prospect is at Minnie Springs, discovered in 1995 by Landsat, stream sediment and rock chip sampling. This defined several anomalies indicative of a porphyry-type system related with intense silicic and potassic alteration.
The central part of the molybdenum mineralised zone was tested by drilling with three diamond and five RC holes , with a further single RC hole in the adjacent copper mineralised zone. Widespread sulphide (mainly pyrite) mineralisation was encountered in all holes but diamond holes MSD-1, 2 and RC holes MRC-1, 2 and 6 also intersected significant molybdenum and trace chalcopyrite mineralization. A selection of the historic drill intersections includes the discovery hole of MRC-6 (61 metres @ 0.09% molybdenum from 3 metres depth) as well as wide widths recorded in holes such as MSD 2 (174 metres @ 0.03% molybdenum from 8 metres depth)
Drill chips from 24-25m depth in hole MRC10 showing molybdenite and pyrite disseminated in host granitoid. This intercept graded 2m at 0.45% Mo within a zone of 20m at 0.12% Mo
Economically significant molybdenum values (applying a cut-off of greater than 0.05% Mo over 1 metre) occur in both MSD-1 and MSD-2 with a highest value of 0.34%Mo at only 17m depth. The most significant results to date were recorded in hole MRC-6 which had a highest 1 metre value of 0.60% Mo within an intercept of 24 metres grading 0.14% Mo from 11 metres. One hole (MRC-5) which tested the peak of the extensive copper anomaly on the eastern section of the alteration system returned two separate one metre intersections of
0.4% Cu within granitoid host rocks.
Drillcore showing disseminated Molybdenite Grading 0.34% mo from 17m depth at Minnie Springs
Re-assay of drill hole cuttings indicate potentially significant values of tungsten and uranium are also present in different parts of this large (5km x 2km) alteration system.