South australia awards 2012 PACE funding
THE DRILL SERGEANT: The South Australian Department for Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy (DMITRE) has completed its allocation for its PACE 2020 initiative that funds co-operative exploration drilling programs with companies undertaking resources exploration within the state.
PACE Discovery Drilling is partnership with industry to undertake drilling in areas determined by DMITRE to have economic mineral potential, but may be hampered by factors that discourage investment.
PACE Discovery Drilling 2012 aims to fund high quality, technically and economically sound projects that promote greenfields exploration targets.
Successful proposals are assessed as those containing the highest quality exploration targets based on sound technical, scientific and commercial criteria.
The successful applicants have approximately one year to complete their programs and submit reports and drilling samples.
Source:South Australian Department for Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy
Doray Minerals received funding to drill test a number of prospective targets within the company’s 100 per cent-owned Nuckulla Hill gold project.
According to the company the Nuckulla Hill gold project contains approximately 100 kilometres of strike of the mineralised Yarlbrinda Shear Zone, immediately south of the Tunkillia gold – silver deposit, along with a series of prospects identified by previous explorers during the 1990’s.
Previous work has been limited and there has been no systematic gold exploration on the project since 1997.
Historical drilling at the Sheoak and Bimba prospects resulted in a number of bedrock gold intersections similar in grade and thickness to that seen during initial exploration at Tunkillia, including:
Sheoak
8 metres at 1.00 grams per tonne gold and 22 metres at 1.08 grams per tonne gold;
34m at 0.42g/t gold, including 2m at 2.08g/t gold and 6m at 0.95g/t gold; and
24m at 0.40g/t gold.
Bimba
28m at 0.65g/t gold, including 8m at 1.25g/t gold;
36m at 0.4g/t gold, including 4m at 1.4g/t gold; and
24m at 1.14g/t gold, including 8m at 1.97g/t gold and 2m at 0.96g/t gold and 6m at 1.08g/t gold.
Doray said it plans to use the PACE funding of up to $70,000 to test for depth extensions at the Bimba prospect and a new structural target north of Bimba, identified by a recently completed detailed aeromagnetic survey.
Golden Cross Resources reviewed geophysical data in 2011 to identify six targets with similar characteristics to known IOCG prospects and deposits elsewhere in the Gawler Craton.
The company has identified a further fourteen targets in 2012.
Golden Cross has had funding of $75,000 approved towards the drilling costs of the 2011 targets.
Marmota Energy received the PACE nod to the tune of $65,000 for drilling of copper-gold targets at the company’s Indooroopilly project.
The project is located west of Kingsgate’s Challenger gold mine, which produces 100,000 ounces of gold per annum.
Marmota said a number of ready to drill targets have been identified on the project with strong coincident geochemical and geophysical anomalism particularly for copper and gold.
The Moonbi target has been identified as the highest priority target.