Exploration Geologist Michaela Flanigan reports for MiningIR from Australia.
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On the 10th of August, Moho Resources began offering share subscriptions with the goal of listing on the ASX (ASX: MOH). MOH controls three exploration prospects in Australia: the Empress Springs project adjacent to the historic Croyden goldfield in northern Queensland; the Silver Swan North nickel-gold project near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia; and the Burracoppin gold project in southeastern Western Australia.
The company is part of joint ventures with Independence Group NL (ASX: IGO) and Odin Metals Limited (ASX: OML), in all cases owning the right to earn up to a 70% interest in the exploration tenements. MOH is initially offering a shares with a minimum subscription of 22.5 million at $0.20 each, with the option of oversubscription up to a total of 30 million shares. In the case of the minimum subscription being reached, MOH would generate $4.5 million, extending to $6 million if maximum subscription is achieved.
The company proposes to spend up to $3.04 million, depending on the number of shares sold, on further exploration work at all its sites. Such work would include the geochemical investigation of soil anomalies and fingerprinting of stratigraphic units, the application of geophysical techniques including passive seismic, EM and gravity surveying, and aircore, reverse circulation, and diamond drilling. This will include at least 16,000m of drilling at Empress Springs, 2000m at Silver Swan North, and 4000m at Burracoppin.
MOH considers the Empress Springs project to have the largest mineral resource potential, investing 150,000 AUD before listing to refine drilling targets at the site. The prospects are located south of Croyden and its associated goldfield, which is estimated to have produced over 1.2Moz over its lifetime. Barrack Mine Management Ltd. mined at four locations in the goldfields during the 1980s, with most mineralisation occurring in quartz veins up to 10m thick.
Most mineralisation in the region occurs in the Croyden Volcanic Group (CVG), a domain consisting chiefly of rhyolitic ignimbrites and containing abundant graphite. Empress Spring lies on both the CVG and the Esmerelda Supersuite, a fractionated suite of intruding granites, which also host graphite. A major brittle deformation event in the area resulted in thrusting and the emplacement of the gold-bearing quartz veins, which contain many lode deposits.
Aerial magnetic surveys commissioned by MOH revealed fault structures intersecting the Mohorovičić Discontinuity – likely an important pathway for mineralising fluids. In particular, two areas in north-west trending fault zones were identified using EM, and these show folding and dyke dislocation, possibly indicative of dilations the could concentrate such fluids. In addition, Avalon Minerals Ltd. obtained geochemical soil analyses in 2007 that show conincident antimony, bismuth and gold anomalies over certain intersecting and gravitationally anomalous structures.
Silver Swan North occurs in the same terrane as the recent bonanza gold find reported on MiningIR. The area is prospective for both gold and nickel in different formations, and there are numerous mining installations within a few dozen kilometres of the prospect. The project lies on the border between the Kalgoorlie Terrane and the Kurnalpi Terrane, both part of the ancient Yilgarn craton, which are divided by the regional Mount Monger-Moriarty Fault.
The intense Fitzroy Shear Zone associated with this fault seems to be the main structural control on local gold deposition, and mineralisation has actually been discovered by drilling at the project site at the contact between a quartz porphyry and felsic volcanic deposits. Nickel, conversely, is associated with the base of the Black Swan Komatiite Complex. This site lies in a region that has been intensively explored, but specifics about the eastern side of the project are difficult to come by due to lateritic soil cover.
Burracoppin is the company’s most speculative project. It lies on privately-owned farmland, making access difficult and largely restricting exploration activities to roads and fencelines. The site sits in the greenstone belt of the high metamorphic grade Southwest Terrane of the Yilgarn craton. The nearby Katanning (Ausgold ASX: AUC) and Tampia (Explaurum ASX: EXU) projects have recently been defining extensions of known gold resources. The known deposits in the area are all associated with regional shears, and Burracoppin has the virtue of lying on the same north-south shear as the Tampia project.
Gold exploration in the Southwest Terrane has historically been minimal, in large part due to the low outcrop of the greenstone. The local finds are interpreted to have been formed during greenschist facies metamorphism, but subsequently increased in grade to granulite facies, possibly causing a remobilisation of gold. MOH commissioned an Independent Technical Assessment Report prepared by CSA Global. CSA Global notes that there is substantial cover and limited outcrop at all three project sites, meaning that exploration relies heavily on geophysical methods.
This problem will potentially be mitigated by the extensive drilling campaigns planned by MOH. The share offer is managed by RM Corporate Finance.
Original content – written for MiningIR by Michaela Flanigan, an experienced research and exploration geologist based between projects in Germany and Australia
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