Spalding Project

(EL 3686)

The Spalding project is based on EL 3686, of 157 sq kms, located just west of the town of Spalding (Figure 4a). A number of historical copper workings occur in the Spalding area, notably the Wheal Sarah mine, the Broughton mine and the Ardincaple mine, as well as several smaller prospects.

A zone of copper anomalism associated with brecciated and sericite/hematite altered siltstones was identified in 1991. This was identified in a previously unexplored area of the Spalding Project, 3.5 kilometres west of the Ardincaple mine. Three rock chip samples reported copper in the range of 430-560ppm.

At the Ardincaple copper mine, a mine shaft that was sunk to a depth of 43ft exposed weathered feldspathised quartzite cut at irregular intervals by veins of copper bearing material. Near the surface the copper minerals are oxidised, but towards the foot of the shaft the principal mineral is chalcocite. A sample from the bottom of the shaft had a copper grade of 33.4% while a sample of the mineralisation at the top had a grade of 33.2%. These very high grades indicate the prospective nature of this old copper mine and the surrounding area.

With several known occurrences of copper mineralisation in an interesting stratigraphic and structural setting, an untested geochemical target, and essentially no effective drilling in the most prospective part of the area, the Spalding tenement has obvious potential for oxide copper and must be regarded as under-explored.

With several known occurrences of copper mineralisation in an interesting stratigraphic and structural setting, an untested geochemical target, and essentially no effective drilling in the most prospective part of the area, the Spalding tenement has obvious potential for oxide copper and must be regarded as under-explored. As with the Burra area, there is also potential for primary sulphide mineralisation to be present at depth beneath the known exposures of oxide-zone copper minerals.