Geological Setting
The Mt Carrington project contains substantial precious and base metal mineralisation predominantly hosted by the Permian Drake Volcanics, within the southern New England Fold Belt in north-eastern New South Wales.
The Drake Volcanics comprises a 60km long by 20km wide north to northwest-trending sequence of Lower Permian acid to intermediate volcanics dominated by volcaniclastic andesitic units, intruded by contemporaneous sub-volcanic andesite and rhyolite porphyries. The Drake Volcanics are conformably underlain by the Razor Creek Mudstone and conformably overlain by the Gilgurry Mudstone. Permian and Triassic granitoid plutons and associated igneous bodies intrude the area, several bringing small scale intrusion-related mineralisation.
To the east the Drake Volcanics overlie or are structurally bound by the Carboniferous to Early Permian sedimentary Emu Creek Formation, which host the gold mineralisation of the Tooloom and Lunatic Goldfields. To the west the Drake Volcanics are intruded by the Early Triassic Stanthorpe Monzonite pluton and structurally bound by the Demon Fault from earlier Permian granitoids. The granitoids form part of the New England Batholith and are known to host numerous mineralisation occurrences including disseminated gold mineralisation at Timbarra and tin-tungsten-molybdenum mineralisation in the Wilsons Downfall and Stanthorpe areas.
Mt Carrington is a historic mining centre with a number of low sulphidation epithermal gold-silver deposits characterised by relatively high levels of base metal (copper-lead-zinc) mineralisation. The deposits manifest as fissure veins, stockworks, breccias and stratabound disseminations within the andesitic, andesitic volcaniclastic and intrusive rhyolitic lithologies.
Mineralisation is hosted within the Drake Volcanics, which locally is centred on the Drake Quiet Zone, a 20km diameter circular feature of low magnetic signature. Detailed mapping has confirmed that the Drake Quiet Zone is a caldera structure. Calderas are a common setting for a range of epithermal mineralisation styles from low-grade disseminated bulk tonnage deposits through to high grade “bonanza” vein hosted deposits. At depth the volcanic centres within a fertile caldera setting can host intrusions with porphyry copper-gold mineralisation.
The Mt Carrington Project presents exploration opportunities on three levels:
The existing deposits provide a potential near-term development opportunity.
The recognition of the mineralisation setting within a major volcanic caldera and the lack of modern exploration provide significant upside potential in identifying a world-class epithermal gold-silver deposit.
The metals zonation, spatial relationships to volcanic intrusions and change in mineralisation styles seen through the area can provide a vector for targeting deeper porphyry-style Cu +/- Au mineralisation.