Bencubbin Project
The Bencubbin Project, located 70 kilometres north of Merredin and 270 kilometres east of Perth, comprises approximately 200 km² of tenements.
The Bencubbin project area overlies dominantly gneissic and granitic rocks of the Archean Yilgarn Craton, with scattered enclaves of mafic gneiss and metamorphosed banded iron formations. The gneissic rocks are intruded by small plutons of recrystallised adamellite and granodiorite. The Bencubbin greenstone belt outcrops over approximately 20 kilometres and consists largely of amphibolite, with metasedimentary rocks present on the southeast margin. The granitic host rocks and/or the higher metamorphic grade is characteristic of the Boddington, Tropicanna and Westonia gold depsosits as examples.
Previous exploration in the early 1990s highlighted the North Merredin 2 prospect where auger sampling defined a gold-copper-arsenic anomaly over 3.5 kilometres in length. Grid RAB drilling followed by RC and diamond drilling tested the anomaly, intersecting broad zones of low grade gold mineralisation (best result of 12m @ 2.0g/t gold from surface). RAB drilling on 200 metre spaced lines was completed across the anomaly, with a number of holes intersecting broad zones of low grade gold mineralisation (best result of 12m @ 2.2g/t gold from surface), followed by reverse circulation and two diamond holes. This follow up drilling returning broad zones of low grade mineralisation up to 15m @ 0.70g/t gold in a banded iron formation within a granitic gneiss associated with the development of sericite, chlorite and sulphide alteration.
