a blast from the past

I am annoyed every time WMC receives credit for all the historic work carried out in the early days of this discovery. The main partners in the joint venture were WMC and North Broken Hill Ltd. WMC were the operators up to about 1972, then NBH took over and did all the work for the next 10 years or so. I was the NBH geological draftsman at Moonta from 1973-80. The office & depot in Moonta was the home base for 2-3 geologists, 1 geophysicist,field assistants,Analytical Chemist & laboratory & staff, sample preparation room,drafting room, 2 diamond drill rigs, 2-3 auger rigs, work shop etc. We were the biggest employer in the town.

I remember the Alford discovery (mid 70's)very well. We knew it as Roach's prospect. Ron Roach was the land owner. The anomalous auger assays would have come straight from the lab and plotted within minutes. The subsequent diamond drill holes to test the geochem anomaly teased us with fair intervals of 1% Cu. In those days we were looking for another Broken Hill or Mt Isa size deposit. Wide intersections of 3% Cu (primary ore) was the target. The term IOCG was not in the geologist's vocabulary back then.

What I find of interest is there has been no mention of the significant anomalous Uranium intersected in the diamond drill holes at the western end in figure 5. At the Hillside deposit, of the 3 mineralized zones only the "Songvaar zone has anomalous uranium.

Back at Alford in the 70's this uranium was worthy of follow up drilling.

The NBH diamond holes 115,129,132 & 224 are stepped back and are over 200 metres in depth and would not have tested the supergene enrichment zone that ADN seems to be interested in.
This is a very interesting story unfolding. We are now on the 4th chapter.
Tezza