Page 59 - pd279-Feb20-mag-web_Neat

Godolphin has control of 3,200sq km of ground
on the Lachlan Fold Belt in New South Wales

Alkane hit 502m @ 0.48 g/t gold “Land issues are really dependent on ex- hope of repeating Alkane’s Boda discovery
and 0.2% copper from 211m in its actly where you are,” he said. “I’ve met both could be at Copper Hill East, which sits on
maiden diamond hole at Boda, spark- the new owner and the next-door landholder the same Molong volcanic belt structure.
ing widespread investor interest. and they are both pro-mining. It is changing Greenwood said while not as advanced
“The Lachlan Fold Belt is well known more broadly. The drought has seen many as Mt Aubrey, Copper Hill East was showing
as elephant country; it is one of the big- farms take work in the mining industry so signs of alteration and malachite at surface
gest porphyry provinces in the world,” they understand the sector a lot better now. next to copper-in-soil anomalies.
Greenwood said. “And now there is “Land issues are dependent on where you “It is not drill-ready yet,” he said. “We have
the Boda discovery. That was a world- are, with the drought farmers have increas- done some soil sampling work, the results of
class intersection and although there ingly worked in mining so understand the which will dictate the areas we home in on.
is still plenty of work to be done on it, sector a lot better now.” After that, we will do some detailed geophys-
it helps all the other juniors around. Away from Mt Aubrey, Godolphin’s best ics and hopefully by the end of 2020 we’ll
From Godolphin’s perspective, the tim- have some drill targets.”
ing was impeccable because Ardea At the Lewis Ponds project,
started the IPO before Boda was dis- Godolphin has historical data
covered.” pointing to high-grade lead-zinc
While Godolphin has porphyry tar- production in the 19th century, but
gets of its own – its four main projects Greenwood is more eager to test
are within 150km of Boda – its initial the ground’s gold potential.
exploration attention will be on the Mt “They never really targeted the
Aubrey epithermal gold prospect. gold, even when it was later drilled
Briefly mined by BHP Ltd, Mt Aubrey by different companies they didn’t
was abandoned in 1991 due to land- assay for gold,” he said.
holder opposition. The site was reha- “I think it is exciting from a gold
bilitated but a change of ownership has point-of-view and the met testing
opened the ground back up to explo- Ardea did was positive. We know
ration. Godolphin’s plan is to confirm we can produce a clean zinc con-
BHP’s historical work and then begin centrate and a mixed precious
stepping outside the known resource. metal-copper concentrate which
“It was only mined to 40m because is saleable. We just need more
the farmer didn’t want any blasting so geological work.
only allowed free digging but they still Lewis Ponds is littered with remnants of 19th “It is a VMS system with a se-
recovered about 12,000oz gold at century mining, including base metals ries of lenses which are structurally con-
around 3 g/t,” Greenwood said. shafts (below) and a marble quarry (above) trolled. A lot of the historical didn’t go through
“Although the average depth of drill- all the veins so we will drill a horizontal hole
ing was 40m, there were some really through the whole stratigraphy to give us a
good hits beneath the pit. Ardea got clearer indication of what we have.”
hold of the project a few years ago and Despite the tough market conditions for
has since been working it up to prepare it for junior explorers, Greenwood is happy with
drilling. Godolphin’s position and expects positive
“The plan is to check those early BHP news to flow later this year.
holes to confirm, then step out and drill along “The discovery of Boda helped focus at-
strike. Based on the BHP data, there is tention on this region so if we get early re-
65,000oz gold in inferred; that’s not enough sults and there is more success from Boda;
for a standalone operation but there are it will be really good,” he said.
opportunities for toll-treatment. Ultimately Although the plan is to test all four main
though, we want a standalone which prob- projects, Godolphin is willing to adapt.
ably requires 300,000oz so that is our initial “If we hit something early at Mt Aubrey,
target.” we will just keep going with drilling there,”
Godolphin was preparing to start its first Greenwood said. “Having $6 million in the
drilling programme at the time of print with bank gives you a good base to do that. We
3,000m of RC and 3,000m of aircore holes are not going to die wondering. We raised
to be drilled. that money and shareholders want to see it
“Epithermal systems take a lot of drilling; going into the ground.
you must have close control and make sure “Hopefully our work can generate interest
you don’t step out too far, Greenwood said. from the larger companies. We have already
“So, we will twin the BHP holes and then be- had approaches but don’t want to give away
gin stepping out because there is 6-7km of anything too early. We would be silly not to
potential strike length of veining but its need drill it ourselves. At the right time, when we
testing.” require some deep holes, we will be happy
NSW has developed a reputation for land to look at JVs, etc.”
access issues but Greenwood said the new – Dominic Piper
landowner at Mt Aubrey was welcoming of
Godolphin’s plans.

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT FeBRUaRY 2020 Page 59