Annual exploration report for MCN 3705, MCN 3706, MCN 3707 and MLN 1103 for year ending 25 April 2005, Woolwonga Group

Abstract

The Woolwonga tenement group is centred on the open pit mine of that name, 130 km SE of Darwin, NT and 16 km NE of the Brocks Creek mine office. Following exploration programs from 1985, the Woolwonga open pit mine was operated in the mid 1990's by Dominion Mining Limited. Following extensive exploratory drilling and a feasibility study, the company estimated a recoverable mining reserve of 2.1Mt @ 2.78g Au/t. The ore was treated at the Cosmo Howley mill until the operation closed in 1995. Northern Gold NL acquired the tenements from Dominion following completion of the mining phase and rehabilitation of the mine site, In April 2002, Northern Gold NL subsidiary, Territory Goldfields NL entered into a joint venture agreement with Buffalo Creek Mines P/L, whereby the Woolwonga tenement group, along with a wider schedule of jointly held mining assets, was to be jointly managed under Burnside Operations P/L. The mine is located on the 310 degree striking axial zone of the Woolwonga Anticline, formed within Lower Proterozoic clastic sediments and dolerite sills of the Mount Bonnie Formation. The axial zone is cut by mineralised 335 degree striking fracture sets. Combining this with the effects of axial planar foliation and hinge zone detachment structures, interacting with competency contrast planes between silt-mudstone and greywacke, a complex of stockwork style quartz-sulphide vein network and saddle reef style bodies has developed. In 2003-2004 the Burnside Joint venture conducted a program of RC drilling on a target SE of the main pit complex (Empire prospect). During 2004-2005 a program of reconnaissance RAB drilling was completed to test the SE strike extension of the Woolwonga Anticline axis. A total of 67 holes were drilled for an advance of 1,084m. The assays results were generally not anomalous and suggested near-surface targets are not present in the area drilled. In addition there was a technical review, geochemical database development and continuation of the regional remote sensing interpretation. The total cost of drilling and review within MLN 1103 in 2004-2005 was $15,029. With the purchase of the Union Reefs gold treatment plant in August 2004 the economic focus of the region was changed. The majority of drilling continued to be directed towards developing advanced stage open pit and underground gold resources, in particular the Cosmo Howley deeps, Zapopan, and open pit resources in the region that might be readily amenable to mining and treatment at Union Reefs.