Wriggly & TIN01

EPM 13272 is located approximately 7 km southwest of Mount Garnet, in the Mount Garnet locality, North Queensland. EPM 13272 is approximately 116 km southwest of Cairns and can be accessed from the Kennedy Highway (which passes through the northwest corner of the tenement) and via station tracks. EPM 13272 abuts and underlays the Gillian ML (ML 20743).

EPM 16024 is located approximately 10 km southwest of Mount Garnet, in the Mount Garnet locality, North Queensland. EPM 16024 is approximately 120 km southwest of Cairns and can be accessed from the Kennedy Highway (which passes through the southeast corner of the tenement) and via station tracks. EPM 16024 abuts and underlays the Gillian ML (ML 20743).

The TMG tenements immediately to the south of the Gillian deposit, EPMs 13272 and 16024, contain skarn alteration systems. An historic named cluster of fluorine rich skarn occurrences, termed the Ironstone deposit, occurs partly within EPM 16024. This Ironstone deposit was explored for the fluorine and tin content in the 1970s by Comalco Exploration (Comalco was a significant fluorine explorer in north Queensland and looked in detail at deposits like Ironstone and Pinnacles in the 1970s). On a northwest trend away from the Ironstone deposit is a small roof pendant of Chillagoe Formation sediment within which a small pit on an iron oxide outcrop has been recorded. Contin called this occurrence the Tin01 deposit and completed some assay of this ironstone with some reasonable tin results.

To the east of the Ironstone deposit, marble lenses in Chillagoe Formation, continue in outcrop and subcrop on an east west trend into EPM 13272. It is likely this exposure of Chillagoe Formation is a tectonic repeat slice that had been thrust over Proterozoic basement, because this Proterozoic basement is exposed to the north in the Mount Garnet open pit. This eastward exposure of marble was explored by Comalco, that company reporting, in the 1970s, subcrop lenses of skarn development that had significant fluorine content in the same style as seen at the Pinnacles deposit, ie, a wriggly, finely banded skarn development. Comalco called this deposit Wriggly. Further to the east of Wriggly, and still within EPM 13272, Kagara Zinc, in the 2000s, recorded two parallel skarn occurrences, each several hundred metres of east west strike length and several metres wide, that were base metal(Cu, Pb, Zn) rich. Kagara had intended to drill these skarn developments but did not do so.

The thrust repeat slices of Chillagoe Formation are complex in the Gillian area, with the complexity increased by multi granite intrusions that have stopped through the Palmerville Fault trace, and leaving roof pendants of the sediment. It is likely that the regional northwest trend to the stratigraphy occurs from the Ironstone deposit and continues through the small Tin01 skarn, through the skarn under Smiths Creek and then to the Mount Paddy deposit. The Wriggly and Kagara’s base metal skarns, are considered to be within a tectonic repeat sliced package.

The Chillagoe tenements cover a potential alluvial tin resource beside to the Tate River. Alluvial developments in the adjacent Lynd River system were for tin, but a very reasonable content of rare earth elements, contained within the mineral monazite, have also been recorded, although monazite was not recovered in these developments. It is likely the Chillagoe tenements contain reasonable monazite content, and thus rare earth content, however grade and tonnage are unknown.