something to ponder, page-3

Exciting times - IMO, plenty of surprises still left in this company to keep us entertained for a long time to come.

The PIRSA released the findings of a recent project early this year (2007) that reanalysed the Gawler Craton area. I have included below the URL to the site and the wording - you can download the files at the site.

If you look in the bottom left hand corner of the diagram below (from PIRSA site) you will notice Wilcherry Hill and Telephone Dam (both on Trf tenements) highlighted for potential Gold.

I suggest you read the wording below. I particularly like the following extracts:

"From informal enquiries, the elements gold, arsenic, nickel, copper, uranium and vanadium were commonly considered to be of interest in the mineral exploration community with lesser interest being shown for silver, tungsten, cobalt, molybdenum, lead, zinc, antimony, bismuth and platinum (palladium)."

"In addition, the elements tellurium, gallium, selenium, manganese, cadmium, chromium, phosphorus and thallium were offered by the analyst as part of a standard package and thus have also been included."

"An Opportunity For The Exploration Industry"
"There remains in the order of half a million laboratory pulp samples potentially available for further resampling work stored in the PIRSA core library, although not all will prove to be calcretes."

"The Geological Survey is now in a position to take requests from the exploration industry to reassay the laboratory pulp samples."

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http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/pages/minerals/geology/gawler/gc_calcrete.html:sectID=205&tempID=1

PIRSA Minerals Department
The Gawler Craton Calcrete Reanalysis Project [2007]

Announcement
The PIRSA Mineral Resources Group is pleased to announce the release of the results of a pilot study into the multielement (re)analysis of calcrete samples collected during gold exploration programs on the Gawler Craton in the 1990's, and subsequently given to PIRSA.

Calcrete sample locations and gold assay results of the Gawler Craton Reanalysis Project.
View larger image (.jpeg file ~ 100kb)



A brief summary of the project is given below or for more detailed information including dataset information, caveats and references, read the Gawler Craton Calcrete Reanalysis Project Document:

Downsampled Web Version (.pdf file ~ 180kb)
Normal Version (.pdf file ~ 750kb)

Downloading the Data
To download the Gawler Craton Calcrete Reanalysis Project dataset (.zip file ~ 14.3Mb) directly to your computer:

Right Click mouse button on the "Download Gawler Craton Calcrete Data" link directly below and choose "Save Target As..."
Download Gawler Craton Calcrete Data

Introduction
The use of calcrete sampling as a surface geochemical exploration technique developed from research conducted by AMIRA (Australian Minerals Industries Research Association Ltd), which was a collaboration between CSIRO and sponsoring mineral exploration companies.

The aim of this project was to facilitate the detection of gold deposits concealed under cover or in deeply weathered terrains. Research undertaken in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s demonstrated that gold correlated to a high degree with calcium (therefore calcrete) and the calcrete horizon served as an important, readily identifiable sample medium that concentrated gold rather than diluted like iron and other elements in soil profiles (Lintern 1997).

Two years ago, PIRSA released a CD containing a compilation of the analytical results from some 165,046 calcrete samples contributed either directly or indirectly, by 24 companies and supplemented with some additional analyses, done by PIRSA. This was well received but the database had a number of unavoidable limitations arising from differing approaches to sampling and analysis.

Sample Analysis
Gold continues to be of interest but since the time that the original calcrete surveys were completed, interest in the Gawler Craton has significantly widened to elements that were not considered in the original surveys (such as nickel and uranium).

From informal enquiries, the elements gold, arsenic, nickel, copper, uranium and vanadium were commonly considered to be of interest in the mineral exploration community with lesser interest being shown for silver, tungsten, cobalt, molybdenum, lead, zinc, antimony, bismuth and platinum (palladium).

In addition, the elements tellurium, gallium, selenium, manganese, cadmium, chromium, phosphorus and thallium were offered by the analyst as part of a standard package and thus have also been included.

An Opportunity For The Exploration Industry
There remains in the order of half a million laboratory pulp samples potentially available for further resampling work stored in the PIRSA core library, although not all will prove to be calcretes.

The Geological Survey is now in a position to take requests from the exploration industry to reassay the laboratory pulp samples. Sample numbers can be submitted to the Manager – Geological Survey:

Mark McGeough
Phone: 08 8226 2992

Technical information on the assay methods can be requested through Amdel or
Roger Fidler
Phone: 08 8463 3124

References
Lintern, M. J., 1997. Calcrete Sampling for gold exploration. MESA Journal 5 pp 5-8.