CGL Tenements
The Cowarra project is a joint venture with Capital Mining Limited and is located approximately 100km south of Canberra and 40km north of Cooma. The project consists of the historic Cowarra gold mine and a number of nearby workings within tightly folded and sheared Ordovician metasediments. The sediments have been intruded by the Silurian Bega Batholith, which outcrops to the east of the EL. Gold mineralisation at Cowarra is hosted by sulphide-rich lodes developed within a prominent shear structure that can be traced along strike for over 17km.
In the Cowarra area, alluvial gold discoveries in the 1860s led to small scale mining by a number of individuals and syndicates, which in total produced around 50,000 ounces of gold up to 1921. BHP operated a 4-level underground mine on the Victoria Zone from 1935 to 1942 (closed due to labour shortages), producing almost 15,000 ounces of gold from 55,000 tonnes of high-grade ore (average 8.5 g/t Au). Horizon Resources re-opened the BHP mine in 1984 and produced an extra 19,000 ounces of gold from 95,000 tonnes of ore (average 6.3 g/t Au) from underground and small open cut mines up until closure in 1988.
Capital Mining acquired the EL in 2009 and completed geological mapping and sampling programs. Mineral resource estimation was completed in October 2009, returning total Inferred Resources of around 500,000 tonnes at an average grade of 2.3 g/t Au. Subsequent to the mineral resource estimation, Capital completed five diamond drillholes, two each on the Cowarra and Princess zones and one on the Ambassador zone.
The Victoria zone remains open along strike to the north and down-dip. Several other nearby zones also hold potential for mineral resources, including the Princess, Democrat, Prime Minister and Vanderbilt zones. These deposits are priority targets for the Commissioners/Capital JV and drilling programs are planned.
EL5939 also contains exploration targets at Back Creek (gold anomaly in soils), Firestone Ridge (gold in rock chips) and the JMT prospect (gold anomalies in stream sediments and soils). Follow-up exploration programs will be undertaken on these prospects to define drilling targets.
Historic Cowarra Gold Mine site:
Broken Hill Proprietary Co Ltd Processing Plant circa 1940-1942.
From original photo donated to NSW Geological and Mining Museum by W.A. Bayley.
Reproduced with permission of New South Wales Department of Industry and Investment, 2011
