Australia's junior explorers - The ASIA Miner

KAOLIN EXPLORATION TARGET SET AT POOCHERA
MINOTAUR Exploration has announced an
exploration target at its Poochera Kaolin Project
on the west coast of South Australia’ s
Eyre Peninsula, about 50km inland fr om the
town of Streaky Bay.
Five deposits have been
defined from 220 historical
and 224 r ecent drill
holes at the tenement, totalling
an estimated exploration
target of 570 to 810
million tonnes of white kaolinized
granite.
The company’s exploration
director Tony Belperio
says the kaolinized
granite has formed as a
simple, in-situ, weathered
mantle of varying thickness
over coarse-grained
granite and older metamorphic
rocks. He says
the variation in sour ce
rocks may contribute variations
in kaolin form and quality, which may
have positive implications for a range of potential
niche kaolin markets.
Product trials are about to begin on the kaolin
from one of the deposits known as Carey’s
Well, which hosts the world’ s purest
quality kaolin. Minotaur’s managing director
Andrew Woskett says a new calcining circuit
has been installed on the pilot plant at Str eaky
Bay and on which bulk sampling trials
have been conducted.
“The extra circuit will allow Minotaur to expand
the range of trials on various kaolin
based products in tandem with continuous improvement
in the deposit’s resources and chemistry.
Our test work has indicated the
potential for Carey’s Well to yield 8 million tonnes
of the purest quality kaolin available worldwide
and as we move thr ough assessment
and development phases and decisions, we
wish to optimize the range of products that this
Australian Junior Explorers
potential SA new mine can deliver.”
At an envisaged annual product output rate
of 100,000 tonnes, Andrew Woskett says the
current resource is suf ficient to support a
mine life of 75-80 years. The company is satisfied
that the r esource
base of 16.3 million ton-
nes of ‘bright white’ kaolinized
granite with low iron
and titanium content is
more than adequate to
take the pr oject through
feasibility. The 16.3 million
tonnes of ‘bright white’
kaolinized granite will yield
8 million tonnes of -45
micron kaolin.
More commonly known
as ‘china clay’, kaolin is a
naturally occurring industrial
mineral that is an essential
ingredient in
multiple and extremely diversified
applications including
as a filler, extender, raw material and
pigment in paper, paint, polymers, food, medicine
and ceramics. Minotaur believes Carey’s
Well can meet the r equirements of
specialist users at a time when the surging
Asian, Chinese and Indian economies ar e
putting unprecedented pressures on historic
sources of quality kaolin supply.
PROGRESS MADE ON DEFINITION OF ARTHURVILLE PROJECT
RAPID progress is being made on the definition
of Minotaur Exploration’s Arthurville base
metals project in central New South Wales. A
targeted airborne electro-magnetic survey
completed over a 77sqkm area of the site has
identified a large number of bedr ock targets
requiring follow-up investigation.
The exploration pr ogram at Arthurville,
about 50km southeast of the city of Dubbo,
is being funded through an exploration agreement
involving Minotaur, Mitsubishi Metals
and Mitsubishi Corporation.
The Arthurville tenement straddles the
northern extension of the Or dovician Molong
volcanic belt, which is considered to be
prospective for porphyry-r elated copper-
Minotaur Exploration’s Poochera
Kaolin Project is on South
Australia’s west coast.
gold mineralization and volcanic-hosted
massive sulphide base metal deposits.
Augur Resources’ Yeoval copper deposit is
5km to the south and Alkane Resour ces’
Toongi rare earth deposit is 6km to the west
of the Arthurville tenement.
Minotaur’s exploration director Tony Belperio
says data fr om the airbor ne survey
has confirmed more than 100 geophysical
anomalies at Arthurville require further evaluation.
“These ‘bedrock-sourced’ anomalies
are derived from systematic evaluation
of time-varying conductive response as they
can be largely masked by the r esponse of
conductive cover.
“Through integration with geology , ma-
gnetics and mineral occurrence data, these
anomalies are being reduced to those of
highest priority for further field evaluation
that will include soil geochemistry, rock chip
sampling, petrology and gr ound geophysics,”
he says.
The airborne survey was undertaken by
Geotech Airborne Geophysical Surveys
using their proprietary VTEM system over
two select areas corresponding to alteration
systems within the Molong volcanic belt and
adjacent to the Yeoval batholith.
Work is continuing on further defining
these and other base metal targets from the
airborne survey and their prioritization for
follow-up ground surveys.
July/August 2011 | ASIA Miner | 51