Annual report EL 5847 Ranford Hill.

Abstract

The old McCarthy's Mine workings were mapped by pace and compass. There are two separate groups of workings separated by approximately 160m. The northern workings cover a 70m strikelength along an almost N-S trenching shear zone, which is a maximum of im wide. The shear is discordant to the surrounding banded chiastolite carbonaceous silts and shales which strike in a NW-SE direction and dip steeply NE. Mineralization is restricted to a number of pods and possible shutes within the shear zone. The shear dips to the west at approximately 75 flattening to 55-60 in places at depth. Muscovite is present on joints reflecting the proximity of the mineralized zone to the granites to the east and south. Sampling of this lode by United Uranium NL yielded results of 26.5% Pb over 0.91m (nth face) and 19.5% Pb over 0.84m (sth face) at a depth of 9.lm. However, at 12.2m the lode on the north face was reduced to 0.23m which assayed 2.1% Pb and the lode on the south face 4.8% Pb over 0.38m sample 7011 was collected from the dumps, to determine the gold, silver and zinc content of the lode. Unlike other Silver - Pb - Zn deposits in the Pine Creek Geosyncline the McCarthy's Lead Deposit contains virtually no gold mineralization. Other similar deposits, Flora Belle, McKinlay and Pickfords carry from 0.25 - lgm/t Au. The southern workings at Mccarthy's cover a N-South strikelength of approximately 70m with partially infilled shallow pits, shafts and a small open cut. Again the shear is discordant to the NW striking host rocks which include silts, shales and actinolite amphbolite. In the south, granite or an aplitic dyke is exposed close to the workings. The Cullen creek Batholith outcrops only 90m south and approximately 200m east of the southern workings at Mccarthy's. United Uranium's sampling of the lode gave assays of 25% Pb and 7.5% Pb over 0.61m. Dump samples 7013 and 7015 show the southern lead lode has no gold, little zinc and moderate to weak associated silver mineralization. This work was previously carried out as part of a programme involving the evaluation of EL 4933. However, the use of aerial photographs showed the rock chip sampling was immediately north of the licence boundary within EL 5847. One sample 7007 returned a significantly anomalous gold value of 1.Ogm/t Au. However, resampling of this site failed to repeat this assay and it was concluded the result was due to laboratory contamination.