Central Borderlands Project EL 31587 Surrendered 18 December 2018 Combined first annual and final report

Abstract

EL 31573 formed part of the Central Borderlands Project area (along with the adjoining EL 31587). The two were applied for to test and determine the geological nature of certain anomalous botanical features situated within their combined boundaries and, in particular, to establish whether or not one or some or all of those features were kimberlitic or lamproitic. The Licences were duly granted, an MMP (exploration) was subsequently approved, a number of shallow RAB holes were drilled and each one metre sample was examined on reaching the light of day. And every sample taken from below the regolith returned granite - weathered at first, naturally, and less weathered with depth. And so each feature proved to be the top of a relatively small body of granite (as granite bodies go), set in the project area's wider region of granulite facies felsic gneiss. The two units now share the same almost-level subsurface horizon, have developed a similar style and depth of regolith and become covered by the same topsoil alluvium. Their botany, however, is very different. The broader gneiss areas now support forests of mulga etc with grass and shrub species undergrowth, while those underlain by the granite bodies are completely covered with spinifex, in places with a sparse scattering of trees and shrubs here and there and with clearly defined boundaries.