Golden Deeps Limited (ASX: GED) has acquired 100% of Extract Minerals Pty Ltd which holds the Tuckers Hill Project (ELA 5963) and the Havilah Project (EL 8936) in the Lachlan Fold Belt, New South Wales.
The company has also binding terms for a share Placement to receive of $541,217 in cash.
The East Lachlan Fold Belt is a high-profile mining and exploration region that contains several major gold, copper-gold and silver deposits. These include Newcrest Mining Ltd’s Cadia-Ridgeway Mine, Evolution Mining Ltd’s Lake Cowal Mine, China Molybdedum Co. Ltd’s North Parkes Mine, Alkane Resources Ltd’s Tomingley mine, and Silver Mines Ltd’s Bowdens deposit.
Investor interest in the region has increased further with the discovery of significant gold-copper porphyry mineralisation at Alkane Resources Ltd’s Boda Prospect. The USGS (US Geological Service) recently estimated that between four and 10 porphyry systems remain to be found in the Lachlan Fold Belt.
This has led to companies such as Newmont Mining Ltd, Freeport-McMoran Inc. and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd acquiring ground in the region. In addition to porphyry-style mineralisation, there are also orogenic gold deposits such as Tomingley and Hill End, and silver-lead skarn deposits such as Bowdens.
The Tuckers Hill Project (ELA 5963) is located ~20km southwest of the town of Mudgee. The project covers an area of 140 sq. km at the northern end of the Hill End Goldfield, and includes the historic Tuckers Hill, Maitland and Reef Hill workings.
The Tuckers Hill workings are described on the NSW Planning, Industry and Environment MinView website as an area of 1,500m by 800m that has been extensively worked with shafts and tunnels. The deepest shaft is 41m and the longest adit is 124m. Auriferous quartz veins are up to 1.5m thick and strike north northwest, dipping 50-70 degrees east and west. The quartz veins contain pyrite-aresenopyrite and form leaders and saddle reefs in the limbs and hinges of the Tucker Hill Anticline.
Exploration planned by Golden Deeps will target high-grade quartz reefs associated with the Tuckers Hill anticline. The narrow high-grade quartz reefs that were mined on a small scale historically and were sampled at the surface and in shallow workings by previous exploration companies are narrow, but indicate that the Tuckers Hill area is highly prospective for gold.
Golden Deeps will apply models generated by recent exploration by Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd at the Fosterville Mine in Victoria to target structural sites that may host thicker quartz veins.
