About Awati and the Tibooburra Gold Project
Awati was established with the principal objective of exploring for and discovering high-value mineral deposits, resulting in an early focus on high-grade gold systems located near Tibooburra in north-western New South Wales.
The 1,930km2 Tibooburra Gold Project comprises a contiguous land package of 10 granted exploration licences located approximately 200km north of Broken Hill. It stretches 160km south from the historic Tibooburra Goldfields, along the gold-anomalous (soil, rock and drilling geochemistry, gold workings) New Bendigo Fault, to where it merges with the Koonenberry Fault, and then strikes further south on towards the recently discovered Kayrunnera gold nugget field. The area is conveniently accessed via the Silver City Highway, which runs N-S through the project area.
Mining History
Auriferous quartz vein networks and alluvial deposits that shed from them, were mined in shallow pits, shafts and adits by early prospectors between 1881 and 1901. Over 1,700kg of gold was extracted, mostly from alluvial and eluvial deposits. Despite the rich rock-chip gold assays and overall historical mining grades of over 20g/t Au, the primary ore systems have rarely been tested below the water table (approx. 60m). Only sporadic exploration has been conducted since the abandonment of the goldfield in 1901, with undercover exploration utilising the high-quality geophysical datasets of the Geological Survey of NSW (”GSNSW”) now being possible.
Similarities to the Victorian Goldfields
After a detailed study of the Tibooburra District, GSNSW geoscientists (Greenfield and Reid, 2006) concluded that ‘mineralisation styles and structural development in the Tibooburra Goldfields are very similar to the Victorian Goldfields in the Western Lachlan Orogen’. In their detailed assessment and comparison, they highlighted similarities in the style of mineralisation, mineral associations, metal associations, hydrothermal alteration, structural setting, timing of metamorphism and the age of mineralisation, association with I-type magmatism, and the character of the sedimentary host rocks. Mineralisation in the Tibooburra Goldfields is classified as orogenic gold and is typical of turbidite-hosted/slate-belt gold provinces (Greenfield and Reid, 2006).
Location of the Tibooburra Gold Project
Prospective Palaeozoic gold terrains (green shading) of NSW and Victoria
Southern Licences, showing Priority Targets on Total Magnetic Intensity (TMI) base image
Northern Licences, showing the New Bendigo Prospect and other high-priority gold targets. Total Magnetic Intensity (TMI) base image
New Bendigo Drill Hole Collar Plan, showing drill traces projected to surface with key intersections. Note the limited drilling within the broader 5km long (strike extent) soil anomaly. Reported assays in yellow are from the recently completed RC Programme at New Bendigo. Note the fault is inferred and further drilling is required to delineate mineralisation proximal to the fault.
New Bendigo “Main Zone” Long Section showing the north plunging shoots. Section line is oblique to the GDA- 94 grid and is represented on Figure 6. Reported assays in yellow are from the recently completed RC Programme at New Bendigo. Note the fault is inferred and further drilling is required to delineate mineralisation proximal to the fault.
Competent Person’s Statement, Tibooburra Gold Project
The information in this Report that relates to Exploration Results for the Tibooburra Project is based on information review by Mr Kell Nielsen who is a technical adviser to Manhattan Corporation Limited and is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM). Mr Nielsen has sufficient experience which is relevant to this style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the overseeing activities which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2004 and 2012 Editions of the “Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Minerals Resources and Ore Reserves’. Mr Nielsen consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.
