Ann: Ruddygore Drilling Commences, page-6

Some background research

Geology of the Ruddygore and Zillmanton copper mines area,near Chillagoe, North Queensland. Bureau of Mineral Resources 1960/51 byC.D.Branch.

[email protected]%Cu and 1.6 oz/t Ag from a diamond drill hole from the base of open cut No: 1.No depth is given for the intersection within the 304ft deep hole. The authorassumes it is from the horizontal zone of secondary enrichment at the 100-110ftlevel.

BHSouth drill 8 holes from 8-60ft but none reached the zone of secondaryenrichment. Mostly to 0.15% Cu with a [email protected]% Cu section.

Thearea has monzonite rock (although thin section showed it was probably quartzmonzodiorite) with leucocratic microgranodiorite intrusions (called Aplite on the cross section of the mine). Read - pale coloured fine grained late-stage acid igneous intrusions into the main monzonite mass (which is actually quartz monzodiorite). The late-stage intrusions/fluids have shattered the rock and are associated with metal rich hydrothermal fluids which have filled the shatter zones, especially along locally important shear zones/faults of reasonable width. The area around in the monzonite near leucocratic microgranodiorite intrusions (aplites) has altered (called metasomatized in the report) and produced zones with different magnetic and weathering characteristics. It is important as these are the areas with copper mineralisation at Ruddygore mine.

TheRuddygore mine sits at the NW end of an altered area some 1800ft long trending335deg. and 400ft wide. This shows up in the Ballymore soil sampling and is themain drilling target for the current programme.

Twoother altered or metasomatized zones were mapped. One about 3000ft WSW of theRuddygore mine which had a few small pits on it. The other to the northeast ofthe Ruddygore mine and of a similar size would appear to be the same as the largeBallymore soil anomaly shown as Ruddygore East.

Alterationis zoned towards the mineralisation and would appear to me to reflect porphyryzones such as propylitic to phyllic as the mineralisation is located. There wasa swarm of leucocratic microgranodiorite dykes located north of the mine area.

Themine cross section is described as low-grade mineralisation surrounding the high-gradeore. The surface was originally quite leached with a gossan several feet highcontaining copper carbonate leading to the riches below. Because of theleaching upper zones of the open cut were probably waste rock at that time1897-1909 (might be worth doing some dump samples).

Carbonatesdominated to about 40ft depth where chalcopyrite become dominant. Somechalcopyrite-calcite veining actually came to surface. At the 100ft level thechalcopyrite is accompanied by “black ore” which I would interpret aschalcocite or possibly cuprite but Broadhurst (author of the mine crosssection) 1949 called it bornite (this is unlikely).

Theprimary ore was associated with euhedral quartz in anastomosing veins 2-6 incheswide in metasomatized monzonite. (read crystalline quartz in veins that branchbut meander back to join to form a web). Secondary enrichment from around 100ftwas the best ore and bulked up at approximately 5% Cu. It was cut off by a “flatfloor” at just above 125ft – read fault.

Widespreadshallow pits are located across the broader area where copper staining waspresent in metasomatized rock showing a direct relationship betweenmineralisation and alteration zones.

EManomalies were located running about 65deg which is parallel to the mainRuddygore ore body in the area north and east of the mine. From 1000-3000ftwest of the mine there are strong EM anomalies running at 330deg beneath cover(the report recommended trenches to explore these EM anomalies). Drilling to adepth of 500ft was recommended for the altered area now called Ruddygore East.

The360ft between the No: 1 and No: 2 open pits was crossed by the 100ft leveldrive. It was reported that chalcopyrite bearing porphyry was present for thewhole 360ft. The grade was not recorded.

I have found some more reports I will try to compile soon. Ruddygore is a really interesting target. I think it will require a lot of good science to understand the mineralisation controls and relationship to alteration but with several 1+% Cu intersections in drilling and previous production it is a very exciting target to drill. Exciting times with a great portfolio of projects.