This large tenement application is located 120 kilometres northwest of the Australian Capital City of Canberra. Combaning covers parts of the Temora and Springdale Goldfields in the Lachlan Fold Belt which have been significant past gold producers. The Gidginbung gold mine, which produced 677,000 ounces of gold from 1986 to 1996 (NSW Geol.Metmin database 2000), is approximately 12 kilometres northwest of Combaning.
The Combaning tenement application covers Lachlan Fold sediments, volcanics, granitoids and ultramafic intrusions prospective for both gold and nickel.
Drill testing of the Merri Hill nickel and gold targets in 2008 returned lower order gold results and interesting nickel results in the oxide layer.
At Merri Hill, a near surface zone of secondary nickel mineralization identified by prior air core drilling (eg.8m at 1.45% nickel from 20m in SMRA64) was drilled tested last quarter with 3 RC holes totalling 168 metres to obtain samples for metallurgical test work. Significant assay results returned from this RC drilling in the current quarter are shown in Table 1. Samples have been submitted for detailed petrography (microscope analysis) and metallurgical assessment. Results are pending.
Table Merri Hill RC drilling significant nickel intersections.
Hole AMG AMG AMG
East North Azimuth Incl. From (m)To (m)Thick'(m) Ni%
RC08MH74 563509 6173841 048º -80º 18 24 6 0.93%
RC08MH76 563402 6173894 - -90º 12 18 6 0.83%
Gold drill targets in the highly prospective western part of the tenement have been identified. In this area, the Macquarie Arc Volcanics host a number of prospects and old workings including Mother Shipton where historically, approximately 30,000oz of gold has been mined from hard rock and alluvial sources (see figure ). A review of previous work has revealed that surface geochemistry and RAB drilling has identified epithermal style gold prospects within two north west striking andesitic sequences. At Mother Shipton, RAB drilling by previous explorers included best intersections of 2m at 6.80g/t Au from 38m and 2m at 3.95g/t Au from 4m. Mother Shipton has been reported to have produced 30,000 oz of gold in the past.
Elsewhere in the tenement other prospects, east of the Macquarie Arc Volcanics are shown above and are generally quartz vein (orogenic) hosted gold systems which includes the historic Springdale Gold Fields which have had limited modern exploration.