First annual report for EL 30076 to EL 30080 Barney Creek Project Area 2 year to 9 May 2015

Abstract

Ripple has selected Exploration Licences within areas inside the Armour Energy permits, and has been cooperating with Armour in order to evaluate these EL's for their base metal potential. The major activity conducted during the year included a study of historical data and material announced by neighbouring explorers. The most significant result of the first years work has been the recognition of a strong stratigraphic and structural target in the Watershed Basin of EL 30080. This target deepens rapidly southwards under Lynott formation cover, so that initial exploration would need to be confined to a relatively small area where the Barney Creek formation lies under Mesozoic to Recent cover. The Mesozoic cover is 42m thick along the east side of the Tawallah fault, just to the north of the EL (in BD002), implying that there may be alluvial masking of the high geochemistry that is normally expected over mineralised localities. This masking the norm in this district. Any further exploration of the Barney Creek in the Watershed basin would need methods that penetrate below remnant alluvial cover. Shallow drilling and geophysics are favoured techniques. The second most significant positive result of the first years work has been the recognition of a possible extension of the Barney Creek formation under cover, into the south of EL 30079. The fault systems appear to have raised this prospective formation closer to the surface, under the Bukalara sandstone cover. This EM target has an unknown depth but should be less than the intercepts in Ripple and earlier drilling to the south and west. Thirdly, there has been the recognition of a possible extension of the Barney Creek formation under cover, into the far south west corner of EL 30076. The Mallapunyah fault system appears to have been a growth fault which bounds the depositional area of the formation. The fault has not been adequately sampled geochemically, but appears to have mineralisation that may extend into this corner from the southeast and the northwest. This target has an unknown depth because the cover lies unconformably over the Barney Creek formation. Apart from that, there is some possibility that the Nathan group could host mineralisation in its own right. Mineralised fault systems pass through and along subcrops of Wollogorang formation within EL 30077 and EL 30078. This favourable setting is supported by CSIRO research into nearby hole GSD 7 which concluded that it had petrology and geochemistry indicative of a nearby SEDEX deposit. There is evidence that leakage stream sediment geochemistry is working well in the area, and that it should be extended.