BOONOO BOONOO
This property comprises a single exploration licence (EL 6032) of 16 units (about 48km²) held by Malachite and covering an old silver and goldfield that has many of the characteristics of nearby Rivertree, although with a more notable gold component. It is located about 20 km northeast of Tenterfield in northern NSW and is subject to a joint venture with Macmin Silver Limited. Under that joint venture Macmin has purchased a 60% interest in Boonoo Boonoo, together with a similar interest in the Rivertree project, and has now earned a further 15% interest by funding $500,000 of exploration expenditure on the two projects.
Land tenure within the EL includes both freehold and State Forest, although all of Malachite's exploration activity has been confined to freehold land. High grade fissure veins hosted by granite were mined around 100 years ago and some very rich grades are reported in the literature, although their significance is uncertain as little modern exploration has taken place.
Sampling of dumps and old workings at the Boonoo Boonoo gold-silver field in 2003 showed that most were highly anomalous in both gold and silver, with gold values in the range of 0.5 to 51.8 g/t Au, and silver values generally in the range of 10 to 345 g/t Ag. Significantly, these high gold and silver values are accompanied by only low to very low values of arsenic, antimony and base metals. A program of soil geochemistry and induced polarisation (gradient array) geophysics has helped define attractive drill targets at several of the old workings.
Of particular interest is the Specimen Gully prospect, which has the most extensive old workings and consists of several parallel quartz reefs and zones of sheeted quartz veining within a broad band 30-50 m wide and 700 m long. Samples from Specimen Gully are generally distinctly anomalous in gold (up to 2.23 g/t Au) and silver (up to 119 g/t Ag). Furthermore, sampling of dumps on the nearby Star of Hope lode, which merges obliquely with Specimen Gully, produced an average of 13.9 g/t Au and 191 g/t Ag.
A short program of reverse circulation percussion drilling was completed at Boonoo Boonoo in November 2003. The best result from this drilling was obtained for one of the holes drilled at the Star of Hope ode, with a 1m intercept of 6.25 g/t Au and 285 g/t Ag. Other intercepts obtained were generally of low tenor, although the intercepts in the Demonstration and Golden Crown Lodes show some promise. Unfortunately, the main part of the Specimen Gully lode system could not be drilled at that time.
Macmin Silver Ltd. carried out a short drilling program at Boonoo Boonoo in December, 2005. That drilling produced some interesting results, including 3m @ 5.34 g/t Au and 212g/t Ag in the Star of Hope lode, where Malachite had previously recorded encouraging gold and silver values.
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