The Mt Stone project comprises a single
Exploration Permit application (EPM14581) located 230km west
of Mackay. The tenement covers approximately 200km2 of
volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the northern Drummond Basin.
These rocks have been intruded by granitoid bodies and
porphyries of Carboniferous age. The project is prospective
for epithermal gold deposits such as those at the Pajingo and
Wirralie gold mines, located 50km northwest and 40km southeast
respectively.
Access from Mackay to the Mt Stone
project area is by sealed and formed roads via Glenden, Mt
Coolon, and Pyramid Homestead to Mt McConnell. Local roads and
station tracks provide reasonable 4WD access throughout the
project area, except following heavy rains.
Previous
exploration has outlined extensive gold anomalism within the
project area. However, these anomalies have had little
follow-up despite showing similar signatures to known
epithermal gold mineralisation. Regency proposes to target the
more promising areas with early drilling programs.
Regional Geology and
Mineralisation
The Mt Stone project
lies in the northern part of the Drummond Basin that is a
large intracratonic basin which formed in response to
east-west extension during the late-Devonian to Early
Carboniferous. Locally, the tenement covers intermediate to
northeast striking and west dipping felsic volcanic and
volcaniclastic rocks that are ascribed to the St Annes
Formation (Silver Hills Volcanics equivalent).These rocks host
epithermal gold (± silver) mineralisation at Pajingo,
Wirralie, Yandan and Mt Coolon. Pajingo and Wirralie are
located within a 50km radius of the project area and have a
combined pre-mining gold resource of over 675,000oz.
Click on image for full graphic  Mt Stone Mineralisation and Geochemistry
The St Annes Formation rocks are intruded by granitoid and
porphyry bodies of Carboniferous age, for example, at
Cramoisie in the south of the project area. Northeast trending
lineaments, which are possibly basement faults active at the
same time as sediment deposition within the Drummond Basin,
appear to provide a control on the spatial distribution of
granitoids and porphyries. In the northern parts of the
project area St Annes Formation rocks are covered by Late
Carboniferous rhyolitic volcanics ascribed to the Bulgonunna
Volcanics. Outcrop throughout the project area is reasonable,
with only a thin veneer of immature soil, making the project
area amenable to coarse sieve geochemical drainage sampling
and soil sampling. Historic workings of Middle Camp,
Margaretta and Bannockburn are located 20km to the east. These
workings have exploited accumulations of precious and base
metals attributed to epithermal vein and breccia style
mineralisation.
Previous
Exploration/History
From the late
1970s, mining companies have explored the Mt Stone region and
adjacent areas. Exploration for gold was carried out by
companies including Battle Mountain Australia Inc., Hunter
Resources Ltd, Aztec Mining Company Ltd, CSR Ltd, Exploremin
Pty Ltd, Ross Mining NL, Dalrymple Resources NL, Newcrest
Mining Ltd and Western Mining Corp. Their work was mainly
directed towards locating epithermal gold mineralisation and
involved geological mapping, stream and soil geochemistry, and
drilling.
Mapping and reconnaissance work was
successful in locating historic gold, silver, and copper mines
and workings to the east of the project area including Middle
Camp, Sunbeam, Bannockburn, Daisy and Pyramid. Stream and soil
geochemistry outlined numerous areas of anomalism within the
current project area, and areas to the east, including
Cramoisie, Rosewood, Gunnedoo, Mt Stone, Silvernorth, Granite
Dam, Sellheim, Gettysburg and Varanasi. Most prospects and
historic workings are hosted by Saint Annes Formation rocks
that are equivalent hosts to the large Pajingo and Wirralie
resources. Drilling at a number of these prospects has
returned encouraging results including 8m at 18.1g/t Au and
24m at 5.0g/t Au, highlighting the prospectivity of the region
for high grade gold resources.
A review of the
previous geochemical exploration data by Regency has outlined
gold anomalies that have received little attention in the
past. The most significant anomalies are 1) south of Cramoisie
prospect, 2) northeast of Cramoisie, 3) northeast of
Silvernorth and 4) east of Granite Dam. These represent
encouraging exploration targets in light of encouraging drill
results from other prospects with similar geochemical
signatures.
Exploration Potential
The Mt Stone project area is located
in the northern part of the Drummond Basin, within a northerly
trending rift system that is traversed by northeast trending
lineaments. Late granitoid and porphyry bodies intrude the
volcanic and sedimentary rocks with their spatial distribution
apparently controlled by basement faults.
In the
region in this geological setting epithermal gold and base
metal mineralisation is known, with large deposits of
+500,000oz occurring at Pajingo and Wirralie. Mineralisation
has been identified over a large 40km x 30km area that
includes the current project area. Several of these
occurrences were worked as historic mines with high grade
gold, silver and/or copper shows hosted by epithermal veins
and breccias.
Results of previous exploration within
the Mt Stone project area show several areas of gold anomalism
that have not been followed up despite encouraging drill
intercepts at prospects in adjacent ground. The company has
proposed an exploration program that includes geological
mapping, soil sampling and rock chip sampling to outline more
prospective targets that are to be subsequently tested with
RAB drilling. These methods are considered suitable for
exploration of this deposit type, and are consistent with the
mineral potential of the project.
Based on an independent
geological report prepared by Baxter
Geological
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