Great Boulder Resources Ltd (ASX:GBR)’s collaborative research project with the CSIRO at Side Well Gold Project is progressing well and on track for completion in early 2022.
Announced in April 2021, the research project with Australia’s national science agency is aiming to define techniques for gold exploration beneath transported cover.
This 12-month project is funded by Great Boulder and the Innovation Connections service of the Australian Government’s Entrepreneurs’ Program and is led by Dr Walid Salama, senior research scientist at the CSIRO Australian Resources Research Centre in Perth.
Dr Salama’s work has led to important breakthroughs in understanding the style of mineralisation at Mulga Bill by hyperspectral mapping of the hydrothermal halo around mineralisation in the upper weathering profile using hyperspectral analyses.
The target zone has been identified even when the gold has been leached out during weathering. This observation has the potential to greatly reduce exploration costs in deeply weathered areas like Mulga Bill.
It allows for target areas to be tested with shallow drilling into the clay zone immediately below transported cover and exploration fairways defined using hyperspectral analysis as a proxy for gold assays in leached horizons.
“Cutting-edge geoscience”
Great Boulder Resources managing director Andrew Paterson said: “These observations by Dr Salama and his team provide an important breakthrough in our understanding of the gold mineralisation at Mulga Bill and the related alteration halos around the gold.
“Even though we are dealing with deep weathering, leached soils and a layer of transported cover, Dr Salama has been able to identify indicator mineral species that remain stable during the weathering process.
“Dr Salama’s work supports the geochemical observations we’ve made earlier this year with Dr Scott Halley. Although hyperspectral analysis won’t replace conventional assays for quantitative gold estimation, it does have the potential to speed things up in the field.
“This is another example of Great Boulder using cutting-edge geoscience to maximise our exploration efficiency.”
GBR will now separately assess if the abundance of pure chlorite can be used as a proxy for gold assays by using the same mathematical distribution function which the gold assays describe.
The company intends to build on this discovery, with further work planned in 2022 to look at field-portable hyperspectral analysis of drill samples.
If the spatial correlation between hydrothermal indicator minerals and gold mineralisation is strong and reliable enough, hyperspectral scanning has the potential to identify mineralisation at the rig, without the current lengthy wait for gold assays.
This will allow GBR’s field team to make fast drilling decisions, maximising rig efficiency and reducing unnecessary drilling.
A second outcome of Dr Salama’s work is the recognition that gold within the high-grade, pyrite-rich quartz veins sits on the margins of, or cracks within, pyrite.
This suggests the gold should be easily recoverable by conventional gravity and cyanide leach techniques. Great Boulder intends to commission initial metallurgical test-work on samples of reverse circulation (RC) drill chips in the New Year.
About Great Boulder Resources
Great Boulder Resources is a mineral exploration company with a portfolio of highly prospective gold and base metals assets ranging from greenfields through to advanced exploration in Western Australia.
The core focus is advancing the Whiteheads and Side Well gold projects while progressing initial exploration at the earlier stage Wellington Base Metal Project in an emerging MVT province.
Great Boulder is also conducting a strategic review of the advanced Yamarna Copper-Nickel-Cobalt Project.