There is significant history in the area they have been drilling, the fact is it has always been seen as highly prospective but it wasn't viable due to the isolated location and the difficulties in getting the correct machinery, water etc all to site. These days these issues can be overcome. They seem to be focusing on the reefs area now and looking at conducting Auger drilling, the fact they have kept the drill there for sometime and are now following up with Auger sounds promising to me. The gold in this area is abundant but fine (this is the same as Fosterville) so historically it was difficult for them to extract, they now have much better technology and capabilities for great recovery rates from this type of gold. Interesting the attached article states
13. “The Reefs” (Pioneer and Phoenix Mines)(GR: 580308 mE / 6734906 mN)This area was originally know as “the Reefs”. The Wittabreena Mining Company had a 16 hp boiler and a 12-headed stamper battery erected. This company gained rich Au assays of several ounces per tonne, but were unable to recover the fines (unfortunately their engineer knew very little about mining). Gold grades of > 15 oz/t were gained from the workings (Jackaman & Koneck, 1974). Total production from the ‘reefs’ was about 750 oz (Stevens & Etheridge, 1989). These “reefs” were particularly favoured by miners from Tibooburra during drought periods when there was no water available for puddling. In 1899, the Bourke Syndicate put 100 tonnes of old tailings through an improvised cyanide plant for a return of 54 ounces (Gerritsen, 1980). The battery was sold by the government to local graziers in 1895 (Jackaman & Koneck, 1974). Five lines of auriferous veins were recognised in the area: Phoenix; Elizabeth; Pioneer; Rosemount; and, Warratta (Jackaman & Koneck, 1974). The Pioneer Reef is the largest in the Warratta Inlier and is up to 5 m thick.Regolith carbonates have been sampled from the vicinity of the Pioneer and Pheonix reefs and assays reveal high Au contents (typically 10s of ppb and up to 280 ppb)
If you convert the gold grades of 15oz/t to grams you get 425g/t....Now if you convert 54 ounces to grams you get 1,530 grams recovered from tailings (in 1899 which would still be inferior to now) in 100 tonnes giving you an average grade in tailings 15g/t.
http://crcleme.org.au/Pubs/guides/thomson/thomson_field_guide.pdf
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