EL 25288 Annual report

Abstract

Despite 130 years of exploration work by the early diggers, numerous mining companies, prospectors and metal detector operators, the source of the rich nuggety gold at the Margaret Diggings has still not been discovered. I decided last year to invite a number of professional metal detector operators to spend a couple of weeks detecting this E.L. Four men came from W.A. four from Queensland and six from Darwin. All of them found nuggets and/or rich Au/Qtz specimens, for a total of about 40 ounces of gold. The largest specimen contained about 12 ounces of gold. The most significant finds this year were made by an elderly gentleman from QLD who detected three Au/Qtz specimens near my old fireplace on the southern end (headwaters) of the Margaret Diggings. These old alluvial diggings (Fireplace) are some of the heaviest workings at the Margaret, but as far as I am aware, nobody has previously found nuggets or specimens there. Because of the very heavy wet seasons for the past few years, there is now a significant qtz reef exposed on the dozed track near the fireplace. This track was dozed by Freeport about thirty years ago. I submitted a sample of the reef for gold fire assay but the results were negative. This didn't surprise me because my previous extensive chip sampling and panning in or near these diggings has very rarely shown any fine gold. I believe that the reason for this is that the diggings are close to the source and the gold is probably contained in rich nuggety Qtz specimens like the one in the photograph above. A couple of years ago I found a patch of mostly small water worn nuggets on top of the ridge about 300 metres to the N.N.W. That ridge is about the same height as the fireplace diggings ridge. There are also old alluvial gold diggings in the gullies between the two ridges. Samples of the Laterite overlaying the south end (start) of the manganese reef near the Withnall Fault were taken and assayed for gold but the results were negative. Two samples of high grade pyrolusite from there were also assayed for gold but they were also negative. One of the samples (140014) was a floater in the creek and it assayed 55% Mn. The other (140015) was from the pyrolusite reef on the ridge and it assayed 49% Mn. The holders of the mineral claims on the Margaret Diggings (Australian Securities Company) have asked me to organise and supervise the rehabilitation of the illegal mining that was carried out a couple of years ago. I have organised a backhoe to fill in the holes and trenches before the end of May.