Australian Report Small iron ore deposit has appeal

An interesting small mining venture in New South Wales has just been sold. Doral Resources has been mining about 30,000 tonnes per year of magnetite at its mine near Mudgee in east-central New South Wales. The mine is unusual because the magnetite is not mined because of its high iron content, but for its high specific gravity. It is sold to the coal companies in the nearby Hunter Valley coal fields for use as heavy media in the washing plants that remove the pyrite and other impurities before the coal is shipped to consumers. These plants need a secure longterm source of small tonnages of magnetite. Recently, Doral announced that its exploration program had located increased ore reserves and that it was studying the feasibility of increasing production to about 100,000 tonnes annually. Then, unexpectedly, Doral announced that a subsidiary of Poseidon Ltd. had offered about $8 million for the mine and that the directors had chosen to accept the offer, thus realizing a capital profit of about $4 million. Doral will invest the proceeds of the sale in other ventures. Western Australian gold province expanding

A major new gold province seems to be developing in western Australia. A great deal of exploration interest is centred on an extensive greenstone belt in the state’s Precambrian Shield. The area was missed during the earlier gold exploration booms, probably because of its remoteness. It is in semi-desert country about 200 km northeast of Meekatharra, the nearest town.

Pioneer Minerals Exploration made the original discovery on ground they optioned from a small Melbourne-based exploration company, Great Central Mines. Pioneer is developing a mine of their orebody, which has announced reserves of 4.6 million tonnes grading 3.5 grams of gold per tonne, open at depth. The mine should be in production by late 1990.

However, excitement in the industry is focused on the junior exploration companies that have acquired ground in the same greenstone belt. Two of these companies, Titan Resources and Resolute Resources, have located near- surface mineralized zones yielding good gold values.

Exploration in the belt is in an early phase, but some geologists are already comparing it to Kalgoorlie’s famous “Golden Mile.” Much more work will be needed to determine the belt’s potential, but it will clearly be an area of major exploration interest for some years to come. New gold producer in Central Australia

An Adelaide-based junior exploration company is making the transition to become a producer. White Range Gold is readying its gold deposit in the Northern Territory for production. The prospect, about 100 km northeast of Alice Springs, was discovered two years ago. Surface exploration, and shallow drilling, have proved up an 850,000-tonne orebody containing 4.7 grams of gold.

The company is now mining and stockpiling ore from the open pit it is developing. Plant construction is well advanced, and the facility should be operating by mid-April. Recent drilling has intersected higher-grade mineralization outside the proven deposit. The company hopes that this will lead to an increase in both tonnage and average grade. However, more exploration must be done to define the extent of this new zone. Cluff Resources progress

Diamonds were discovered in the Old Copeton district in New South Wales in the late 1800s, but their source has never been found. Cluff geologists developed a theory that the alluvial diamonds came from deeply weathered diamond bearing pipes.

Consulting geologists have now confirmed that Cluff’s bulk- sampling program is indeed sampling weathered lamprophyric pipes similar to those that host the major Western Australian diamond deposits. The bulk sampling will determine whether these pipes contain enough diamonds to be mined commercially. The company has reason to be hopeful, since the old alluvial mining records show that some large gem quality diamonds were recovered from the area in the past.