The Yellow Mountain property is a copper-gold porphyry project, located on the Gilmore Suture within the Lachlan Fold Belt. The project area lies about 55 kilometres north of Condobolin in central NSW, and is 10 kilometres west of the Mineral Hill Mine operated by Triako Resources Ltd. Yellow Mountain has potential to host a large intrusion-related copper-gold orebodies.
Joint Venture with Triako
In April 2002, GCR announced the farm-in by Triako Resources Limited who operate the Mineral Hill mine about 20 km east of Yellow Mountain. Since that time, Triako have earned a 70% interest in the property (GCR hold 30%).
If GCR’s interest dilutes below 10% it will automatically convert to a 10% free-carried interest, to completion of a positive feasibility study, at which stage it may elect to take a 4% net smelter return royalty.
Recent Exploration
Triako continue to explore the Melrose Magnetic Anomaly and have over the past 2 years drilled 24 aircore holes predominantly as infill to previous exploration programs. Encouraging gold, copper and zinc values continue to be intersected and work will continue to follow these results up.
The results of the air core drilling in 2007 – 2008 in the Melrose Magnetic Anomaly confirm a significant gold-copper anomaly 1.5km northwest of Fountaindale and identified a new copper-gold anomaly 1.6km southeast of Fountaindale. They also extend the Fountaindale gold anomalies to the east, at least 0.5km outside the granodiorite – country rock boundary and support several previously identified copper-zinc-arsenic anomalies in the southern part of the MMA programme area and previously identified arsenic anomalies on the eastern margin of the Fountaindale granodiorite.
The various geochemical anomalies discovered by Triako during all previous air core drilling in the Melrose Magnetic Anomaly now comprise:
- Gold anomalies associated with mineralisation within the Fountaindale Granodiorite and adjacent country rock volcanics.
- A halo of gold-copper anomalies around the Fountaindale Granodiorite from the northwest, east and southeast.
- A group of arsenic-lead-zinc anomalies on the eastern margin of the main Fountaindale Granodiorite.
- A group of copper-zinc anomalies near the Erimeran Granite – Melrose Volcanics contact on the southwest margin of the MMA.
- A group of zinc-arsenic anomalies at Rosedale in the far northwest margin of the MMA.
- A number of scattered isolated single point arsenic anomalies, apparently of limited extent.
Future exploration programs will be desgined to target the Fountaindale gold anomalies, and the surrounding gold-copper anomalies and continue to test the numerous gold and copper anomalies in the MMA.
Geology
The Yellow Mountain area is located in the Girilambone Anticlinorial Zone and, more specifically, the Canbelego-Mineral Hill Volcanic Belt. Ordovician siltstones and sandstones of the Girilambone Group unconformably underly the north to northwest trending Siluro-Devonian Kopyje Group.
Locally, lithologies comprise the Majuba Volcanics of the Babinda-Mineral Hill Volcanic Group and a variety of sediments. Intrusive rocks in the area include the Devonian Yellow Mountain Granite, a (dacitic) intrusive porphyry and the Silurian Erimeran Granite.
Several historic base metal and gold mines are present in the project area and include examples such as the Yellow Mountain Mine in the north, which incomplete records indicate yielded 0.365 tonnes Cu, 2.74 tonnes Pb, 6.16 kg Ag, Webers Gossan and the Mt Susannah Lode in the south.
Mineralisation at the Yellow Mountain mine occurs in veins and stringers associated with altered volcaniclastics of the Fountain Dale Tuff member of the Majuba Volcanics and typically comprise pyrite-galena-sphalerite-chalcopyrite with silver and gold.