Targets
Aurora Minerals has completed its first ground reconnaissance prospecting at its 100% owned Camel Hills South project in the north western Yilgarn region of Western Australia.
The prospecting was designed to sample a series of prominent magnetic anomalies which were delineated in a detailed (200m spaced) aeromagnetic survey by Aurora in December 2007 (refer to magnetic image attached), which show significantly more detail than previously available Government aeromagnetic data.
In September 2008 the Company’s prospecting team collected rock-chip samples across several highly magnetic magnetite-quartz-grunerite outcrops which correspond to some of the airborne magnetic anomalies. Selected samples, grading more than 40% Fe, are shown on the attached magnetics map (see map).
Of the 181 samples collected from the Company’s tenements and analysed for iron:
113 assayed greater that 35% Fe, 10 assayed greater than 50% Fe, maximum 58.39% Fe.
No obvious signs of previous exploration drilling were seen in the areas sampled. Research will be conducted over the next couple of weeks to check if there has been any previous exploration in the area.
Aurora Minerals holds100% of the Camel Hills project, comprising 1 granted exploration licence and a series of exploration licence applications. The project covers the central part of the Errabiddy Shear Zone in the southern Gascoyne Province of Western Australia.
The company is exploring for potential Tropicana style mineralisation ( has a reported 62.8 million tonnes at 2.01 g/t Au ) Uranium rich leuco granites with a similar mineralisation style to the type that host the Rossing deposit ( 100 million tonnes at 250-380 ppm Uranium )Ni-Cu-PGE massive sulphide deposits. Such deposits can be large as evidenced by the Voisey's Bay deposit ( 150 million tonnes at 1% Cu, 1.5% Ni Cobalt and PGE )
Interpretation of Aurora’s in-house airmagnetic data coverage of the region has identified a sequence of prominent linear magnetic highs, striking for 40km east west through the project area.
Previous explorers had outlined several stream sediment and soil gold anomalies following reports of gold in local creeks.
The main gold stream sediment anomaly trends ENE for13km and is 3km wide. The two main gold soil anomalies are each 800m long. A limited amount of rock sampling reported results up to 1.4g/t gold at surface.
The anomalies are coincident with a prominent linear airmagnetic high and mapped calc-silicate units in high-grade gneisses.
The Camel Hills Project comprises one granted exploration licence and fourteen licence applications for a total of approximately 1100km2. It lies approximately 150km west of the Fortnum Gold Mine and 220km northwest from the gold-mining town of Meekatharra. The Glenburgh gold deposit of Helix Resources is located 70km to the northwest of Aurora’s project area in similar rocks.
The tenement applications cover 95kms strike of the 150km long Errabiddy Shear Zone (the "ESZ") which joins the northwestern margin of the Archaean-aged Yilgarn Craton onto the 2.5 to 1.9by aged Gascoyne Complex, a series of high-grade gneisses and granitic intrusives. The ESZ trends ENE and is a zone up to 10kms wide of tectonically interleaved and deformed slivers of the Yilgarn Craton and early Proterozoic metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks, of which the Camel Hills Metamorphic Suite (CHM) extend across Aurora’s property position.
Previous exploration has been limited with regional BLEG stream sediment sampling in response to reports of visible gold in panned concentrates from creeks draining the central Camel Hills range. This work covered a 90km strike of the ESZ and Camel Hills Metamorphic Suite with a sample density of roughly 1 sample per 2.2km2. This outlined a series of ENE trending clusters of anomalies at the 0.25ppb level, coincident with the ESZ and mapped outcrop of the CHM where it contains prominent calc-silicate horizons.
The easternmost anomaly, containing the highest individual BLEG value of 21.2ppb, lies within Aurora’s tenements, trends ENE for 13km and is about 3km wide.
Follow-up appears to have been limited to a soil sample survey over a 6km by 3.5km E-W grid. This survey outlined two parallel ENE trending gold-in-soil anomalies, both 800m long at the 5ppb gold contour, with values up to 240ppb gold. Rock chips in the northern soil anomaly are reported to grade up to 1.4g/t from a sheared quartz lens. Several other gold-in-soil anomalies occur.
Other BLEG stream sediment sample anomaly clusters lie to the south and far west in Aurora’s tenements, related to the ESZ. An 11.3km section of this magnetic high has a signature which the Company interprets as having some similarities to that over the Southdown magnetite iron deposit, which is located in a similar geological setting in deformed Proterozioc rocks flanking the southern margin of the Yilgarn Craton.
The magnetic highs at Camel Hills appear to coincide with mapped calc-silicate horizons within the Camel Hills Metamorphic Suite as outlined on published GSWA maps, and also with the main soil and stream anomaly cluster (as above).
Rafts of Banded Iron Formation have been identified in mapping along strike from both the Southdown magnetite deposit and Camel Hills.
One of the initial steps towards development of iron ore infrastructure in the Mid-West region began in early 2006 with the commencement of a tarmac road from Great Northern Highway at the town of Cue, and on to Murchison Metals’ Jack Hills iron ore deposit to the north. Camel Hills is a further 90km to the north of Jack Hills.
The Geological Survey of Western Australia geology map (1983) shows the region to be dominantly granitic gneiss of sedimentary origin, with belts and rafts of magnetite-quartzite-grunerite (metamorphosed banded iron formation) and ultramafic sequences.
Geologically this is interpreted by the Company to be in the transitional zone between the granite-greenstone Archean Yilgarn block to the south and the highly deformed (mylonitized) rocks of the Narryer Terrain immediately to the north.
The iron formation sequences form a series of hills with strike lengths from 0.5 to 2km, separated by flat areas of transported cover. The magnetics suggest that some of the iron formation sequences extend for up to 20km each under the cover material.
Aurora interprets that the magnetic response of the magnetite–quartzite–grunerite sequences may have been masked from earlier explorers by the lack of detailed magnetics to “see through” the enhanced background magnetism of the Yilgarn-Narryer transitional zone (refer above). Some of the ultramafic sequences are talcose and may be prospective for nickel and base metal mineralisation. Visible free gold has also been noted on the northern Camel Hills tenements.
Further sampling is planned for November 2008 to be followed by metallurgical tests to determine the magnetite content of the iron formation samples.
Aurora has extended its tenement applications for a further 35km to the east. Although the eastern tenements have not been flown with detailed magnetics, earlier this month the Western Australian Government released 200m to 500m line spaced magnetic images, including over the eastern area highlighting more magnetic anomalies. Thirty four samples with assays greater than 30% Fe (max 43% Fe) were taken by Aurora’s prospecting team from this area (including 9 samples greater than 40% Fe).
The Camel Hills project contains one granted Exploration License (E52/1961) and 13 exploration license applications (E09/1323, E09/1314, E09/1313, E09/1320, E09/1321, E09/1322, E09/1398, E09/1399, E09/1400, E09/1471, E09/1495 E09/1511 and E09/1512) as reported in the Company’s 2008 Annual Report.