The Tallebung tin field, located 70km north-west of Condoblin, NSW includes a series of historic alluvial and deep lead tin deposits as well as tin-tungsten hard rock lodes which have a combined historic production of 3,350 tonnes of tin concentrate.
Before Aurelia tenure, the hard rock potential of the lodes had been poorly explored, with only 24 drill holes completed in the 1960s with encouraging shallow results not followed up.
Drilling and trenching work completed by Aurelia Metals on the lodes has demonstrated the Tallebung Mine lode system represents a large tonnage, low grade tin deposit, with potential for internal, moderate tonnage, higher grade tin zones.
The relative position of the lodes at 200-300m above a granite, infers the potential for a large, bulk tonnage ‘porphyry’ tin deposit at moderate depths. Porphyry tin deposits are considered to be under-explored in south-east Australia and can yield large volumes of tin mineralisation (eg: Ardlethan Mine historical production >31,000 tonnes Sn). Aurelia has further demonstrated the bulk tonnage tin-tungsten-silver potential of the Tallebung deposit, following results from a programme of re-assay and trenching completed in late 2007.
Historic Core Re-Assay
Stage 1 involved the sampling and selective re-sampling of 12 of the 23 holes available for re-assay. An updated table of significant intervals is presented below:
| Hole | From (m) | To (m) | Interval (m) | Sn % | W % | Ag ppm | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DDH2 | 53.9 | 65.2 | 11.3 | 0.24 | Aurelia assays | ||
| DDH7 | 9.0 | 30.2 | 21.2 | 0.27 | To EOH. Aurelia and historic assays | ||
| DDH11 | 13.7 | 33.1 | 19.4 | 0.1 | 0.03 | Aurelia and historic assays | |
| DDH11 | 76.3 | 104.0 | 27.7 | 0.13 | 0.02 | 12 | Aurelia assays |
| including | 99.2 | 99.8 | 0.6 | 2.46 | 0.03 | 89 | Aurelia assays |
| DDH11 | 138.2 | 138.8 | 0.6 | 0.11 | 162 | Aurelia assays | |
| DDH11 | 162.4 | 191.1 | 28.6 | 0.1 | 6 | Aurelia assays | |
| DDH12 | 4.5 | 18.0 | 13.5 | 0.11 | 0.02 | 13 | Aurelia assays |
| DDH16 | 12.5 | 64.2 | 51.7 | 0.14 | To EOH. Aurelia and historic assays | ||
| DDH17 | 13.2 | 64.0 | 50.8 | 0.15 | To EOH. Aurelia and historic assays | ||
| DDH5 | 33.0 | 44.9 | 11.9 | 0.21 | 0.05 | To EOH. Historic assays. | |
| DDH10 | 30.2 | 40.1 | 9.9 | 0.87 | To EOH. Historic assays. | ||
| DDH22 | 14.7 | 23.3 | 8.5 | 0.25 | Historic assays | ||
| DDH24 | 15.4 | 45.6 | 30.2 | 0.12 | To EOH. Aurelia and historic assays |
- Confirmed, and in some cases upgraded broad, low grade tin ± tungsten results (see table above).
- Confirmed that many historic holes remain in tin mineralisation at end of hole (EOH).
- Confirmed peak tin values to 2.46% Sn.
- Confirmed the presence of significant silver mineralisation, with peak values to 162g/t Ag.
- Re-enforced the target of a bulk tonnage tin-tungsten silver deposit
Trenching
Aurelia Metals completed three trenches for a total of 1000m of trenching in December 2007. The trenches were planned to provide additional evidence of a bulk mineable tin-tungsten deposit. The results were strongly encouraging in this regard, and also confirmed a number of high grade silver intervals.
Significant trenching results include:
| Trench | Interval (m) | tin% | tungsten % | silver g/t | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T3 | 284 | 0.07 | 0.017 | 4 | (entire trench) includes |
| 22 | 0.13 | 0.045 | 5 | and | |
| 16 | 0.11 | and | |||
| 26 | 0.18 | 0.046 | 14 | and | |
| 12 | 0.22 | 5 | and | ||
| 18 | 0.16 | 0.013 | |||
| T2 | 506 | 0.04 | 0.013 | 3 | (entire trench) includes |
| 8 | 0.11 | and | |||
| 2 | 0.33 | 0.013 | 123 | and | |
| 18 | 0.13 | 0.093 | 3 | and | |
| 10 | 0.11 | 0.02 | 67 | and | |
| 12 | 0.10 | 0.015 | 5 | and | |
| 28 | 0.11 | 0.014 |
Diamond Drilling
Six diamond drill holes were drilled between May and July 2008 for a total of 2272.6m. The holes were designed to target areas of interest generated by trenching and historic drill hole assays. Drill holes intersected strongly folded, weakly metamorphosed interbedded siltstone, mudstone and sandstone. Results describe a system with broad low grade tin-tungsten-silver mineralisation, with isolated narrow (~1m) intervals of high grade mineralisation. The drill results also show a considerable ‘nugget effect’ due to the irregular distribution of coarse grained cassiterite. Significant intersections are shown below.
Significant diamond drill hole intersections include:
| Hole | Dip | Azi | From (m) | To (m) | Interval (m) | Sn % | Ag ppm | Zn % | W % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TD001 | -60 | 244 | 0.0 | 31.0 | 31.0 | 0.11 | 14.0 | NSR | NSR |
| Including | 16.0 | 19.0 | 3.0 | 0.66 | 107.0 | NSR | 0.20 | ||
| 52.1 | 68.0 | 15.9 | 0.14 | NSR | NSR | NSR | |||
| TD003 | -60 | 247 | 45.0 | 50.0 | 5.0 | NSR | 50.0 | NSR | NSR |
| 62.0 | 72.0 | 10.0 | 0.17 | NSR | 0.21 | 0.03 | |||
| 103.0 | 106.3 | 3.3 | 0.25 | 40.0 | 0.05 | NSR | |||
| 157.0 | 158.0 | 1.0 | 0.16 | 128.0 | 3.00 | 0.05 | |||
| 228.6 | 229.3 | 0.7 | 0.17 | 63.0 | 1.80 | 0.22 | |||
| 309.0 | 310.0 | 1.0 | 0.11 | 456.0 | 1.10 | 0.02 | |||
| TD004 | -55 | 247 | 27.0 | 54.0 | 27.0 | 0.11 | 8.0 | NSR | 0.02 |
| Including | 27.0 | 28.0 | 1.0 | 1.06 | 10.0 | 0.01 | 0.02 | ||
| and | 32.0 | 33.0 | 1.0 | 0.49 | 109.0 | 0.03 | 0.03 | ||
| 162.0 | 163.0 | 1.0 | 0.22 | 59.0 | 0.32 | 0.16 | |||
| 186.3 | 204.0 | 17.7 | 0.22 | 20.0 | 0.32 | NSR | |||
| Including | 186.3 | 187.2 | 0.9 | 1.11 | 239.0 | 4.43 | 0.07 | ||
| and | 192.0 | 193.0 | 1.0 | 1.76 | NSR | NSR | NSR | ||
| and | 194.0 | 195.0 | 1.0 | 0.18 | 106.0 | 0.67 | 0.04 | ||
| 307.0 | 308.0 | 1.0 | 0.51 | 5.0 | 0.05 | 0.43 | |||
| 365.0 | 367.0 | 2.0 | 0.01 | 4.0 | 0.20 | 0.48 | |||
| TD005A | -60 | 244 | 1.0 | 2.2 | 1.2 | 1.36 | 6.0 | 0.01 | 0.06 |
| 11.0 | 16.0 | 5.0 | 0.21 | NSR | NSR | 0.02 | |||
| TD005 | -60 | 244 | 31.0 | 47.0 | 16.0 | 0.15 | 8.0 | NSR | 0.02 |
| 280.0 | 281.0 | 1.0 | 0.51 | 259.0 | 0.12 | NSR | |||
| TD006 | -55 | 242 | 142.0 | 143.0 | 1.0 | 1.30 | 97.0 | 2.20 | NSR |
| 163.0 | 187.0 | 24.0 | 0.23 | 5.0 | 0.12 | NSR |