VIMP Report 35 Mineral exploration history of the Dunolly 1:100 000 map area D.F. Hutchinson August 1996 Bibliographic Reference: HUTCHINSON, D.F., 1996. Mineral exploration history of the Dunolly 1:100 000 map area. Victorian Initiative for Minerals and Petroleum Report 35. Department of Natural Resources & Environment. © Crown (State of Victoria) Copyright 1996 Geological Survey of Victoria ISSN 1323 4536 ISBN 0 7306 9405 4 This report and folded map may be purchased from: Business Centre, Department of Natural Resources & Environment, Ground Floor, 115 Victoria Parade, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065 For further technical information, contact: Manager, Geological Survey of Victoria, Department of Natural Resources & Environment, P O Box 2145, MDC Fitzroy, Victoria 3065 Acknowledgments: P. Hiew for initiating EL summaries. S. Maher for initiating Appendix 1 and general assistance. S. Rooney for drafting of EL location figures. K. Weston and A. Gaal for assistance in locating hard copy EL company reports. D. Faul for assistance in creating GEDIS work numbers. L. Allwood for assistance with GEDIS reference list. Editing by R. Buckley. Formatting by G. Ellis. MINERAL EXPLORATION HISTORY - DUNOLLY 1 Contents Abstract 2 1 Introduction 3 2 History of Exploration 5 2.1 Gold 5 2.2 Molybdenum 5 2.3 Other minerals 6 3 Exploration programs 7 References 64 Appendix 1 75 Summary table of expired Exploration Licences within DUNOLLY Appendix 2 83 Summary table of exploration companies in DUNOLLY Appendix 3 90 Expired Exploration Licence Locations within DUNOLLY Appendix 4 105 Summary table of geochemical surveys within DUNOLLY Appendix 5 114 BHP Gold Mines Ltd R/C drilling on EL 1191 Appendix 6 119 Drill holes on EL 1201 (EX EL 662) between 1978 and 1984 Appendix 7 122 R/C drill holes in EL 1286 on the Sydenham Grid Victorian Initiative for Minerals and Petroleum (VIMP) report series 126 List of Figures 1 DUNOLLY location map 4 List of Tables 1 Diamond drilling by Western Mining on EL 4 at Berry Lead 7 2 Drilling on EL 227 between 1970 and 1975 (Mt Moliagul) 12 3 CRAE percussion drilling over the Avoca River valley system 20 4 All percussion drilling completed between 1978 and 1982 on EL 665 21 5 Percussion drilling on EL 704 between 1979 and 1982 22 6 Diamond Drill Holes on EL 716 25 7 Diamond drilling on selected reefs in EL 717 26 8 Drill holes in EL 1173 by CRAE from 1982 to 1987 30 9 Bulk testing at Burnt Creek 31 10 Drilling on EL 1199 (EX EL 707) between 1979 and 1985 34 11 R/C drill holes in EL 1279 40 12 Percussion drilling at "Eastern Tarnagulla Kangaroo Mine 4380" in EL 1354 44 13 Percussion holes drilled in EL 1375 45 14 Percussion drilling on EL 1504 47 15 R/C Drill holes for the Timor Project on EL 1608 48 16 Sample results from EL 1723 50 17 Rock chip and dump samples from EL 2347 52 18 R/C drill holes by CRAE in EL 3000 58 19 Geochemical results from EL 3214 and 3215 60 20 Drilling over Doctors and Cairns prospects 60 21 R/C drilling on EL 3217 (EX EL 1725) 61 22 Rock chip samples from the Rathscar Workings in EL 3386 62 2 MINERAL EXPLORATION HISTORY - DUNOLLY Abstract This report provides a summary of the work programs conducted by mineral exploration companies within the Dunolly 1:100 000 map sheet area (DUNOLLY) since the introduction of the Exploration Licensing (EL) system in 1965. Since that time, approximately 107 licences have been granted within the area. This report provides summaries of the exploration conducted in each EL including stream sediment, soil and rock chip geochemical, geophysical and drilling data. The tables and maps in this report provide further information on the DUNOLLY licences. Tables include details of the geochemical and drilling programs undertaken within the EL's, principal exploration targets, the time period the licences were held for and actual expenditure levels for each EL. Maps showing the positions of the EL boundaries and areas where major work has taken place are also included. Since its discovery in 1852 around 53 tonnes of gold has been extracted from DUNOLLY, 61% from hard rock quartz reef deposits and 39% from alluvial deposits (Maher, 1996). The "old timers" did not extract all of the gold and the area remains highly prospective for gold with advanced exploration techniques increasing the chances of discovering a new economic deposit. Modern exploration has targeted gold, molybdenum, and other minerals including copper, silver and uranium. Gold has been the major target for the majority of companies that have worked in the area. MINERAL EXPLORATION HISTORY - DUNOLLY 3 1 Introduction DUNOLLY is situated within Victoria's "Golden Triangle" and comprises forested Crown Land and cleared private land which is used for This report presents a complete overview of the grazing and crop production with most areas previous mineral exploration work undertaken easily accessible by road (see Fig. 1). within the Dunolly 1:100 000 map sheet area DUNOLLY lies within the Bendigo-Ballarat (DUNOLLY). Exploration Licences (EL's) for Gold Province which trends NNW-SSE through which no company reports have been received the area. It contains nine major goldfields; by Minerals and Petroleum Victoria, Wehla, Fenton's Creek, Bealiba, Kingower, Department of Natural Resources and Rheola, McIntyre, Inglewood, Tarnagulla and Environment are denoted as "not submitted" Dunolly. A complete description of the geology and reports that could not be located are of DUNOLLY can be found in Marlow (1995). denoted as "not available". The information The area comprises many significant historical contained within this report is constrained by mines including the Union Reef, Poverty and the amount of information given in the Queens Birthday Reef Mines. Complete details company reports which ranges from very little of the mines and mineral resources within to extensive. DUNOLLY are presented in Maher (1996). Appendix 1 summarises the company Large alluvial deep and shallow leads including conducting exploration, the principal the Loddon Lead dominate the eastern and exploration target, the time period the south-eastern margins of DUNOLLY. Early tenement was held, the expenditure and the gold production was derived from the shallow work undertaken (drilling, geochemistry, and deep leads around Burnt Creek and its geophysics, literature survey and mapping). tributaries. The White Hills Gravel which caps Appendix 2 lists the exploration companies in numerous hills throughout the area supported alphabetical order with the EL title, time period small scale mining operations. Reef mining and target included. The locations of the EL's developed after the discovery of the Queens and specific drilling, geochemistry and Birthday Reef at Goldsborough and the Cairns geophysics surveys within the EL's is presented and Sydenham Reefs south-east of Dunolly. in Appendix 3 (Figs I - XI). A GEDIS (corporate Historical mining concentrated almost database) survey number is assigned to each exclusively on gold although minor copper and exploration program conducted and is shown on molybdenum resources were exploited. the maps. This number is linked to the GEDIS DUNOLLY is famous for the numerous large database which lists the type of work the nuggets found, the Rheola Goldfield yielded 98 survey involved. Appendix 4 is a summary of nuggets weighing over 50 ozs each, including 12 the stream sediment, rock chip, soil, costean over 500 ozs. The largest found was the and bulk sampling programs undertaken within Welcome Stranger Nugget (71.1 kg) at DUNOLLY including the area and year the Moliagul. work was completed, the type and number of samples, the mesh size of the sample, the analytical method, the minimum detection limit, and the elements analysed. The drilling tables within this report summarise all drilling conducted (excluding RAB drilling) and outline "significant intersections" from drill logs. A gold cut-off of 0.5 g/t has been used in this report, with values above this deemed to be significant or anomalous and at a level that would trigger interest in a grass roots exploration program and provide evidence to continue exploration in that area. In cases where the company reports do not contain drill logs or there has only been a small amount of drilling completed (only two holes for example) then the results are detailed in the text only. MINERAL EXPLORATION HISTORY - DUNOLLY 5 2 History of Exploration Exploration and CRA Exploration examined the alluvial leads in the Avoca area, drilling along lines across the Avoca River with moderate 2.1 Gold success (EL 646). Gold in DUNOLLY occurs in quartz reefs, In the first half of the 1980's CRA Exploration Tertiary deep leads, shallow alluvial leads and conducted a major investigation of the Loddon high level gravels. Gold bearing ore shoots are and Bet Bet Leads (EL 3000), delineating a developed in the folded turbidites and are potentially large gold resource but failing to characterised by multiple quartz veining find an economic extractive process. They were associated with free gold, simple sulphide investigating the notion of extracting the gold assemblages and narrow alteration zones through bores using cyanide leaching at the (Marlow, 1995). These transgressive quartz Eastville Prospect. Carpentaria Exploration veins within the sedimentary beds are referred conducted exploration targeting large tonnage to as "cross reefs" or "cross veins". Weathering disseminated gold deposits and placer gold and erosion of these reefs and country rock deposits around the township of Dunolly released enormous amounts of gold which (EL 717). CRA Exploration targeted large resulted in the accumulation of extensive tonnage reef and placer deposits around the alluvial deposits. The gold in the deep and Fenton's Creek area (EL 1173).