Highlights
The 40km2 Exploration Licence Application surrounds the privately held Mining Lease over the high-grade Beaconsfield Gold Mine and covers a prospective 12km corridor along the Cabbage Tree thrust block that contains numerous historic gold workings and prospects.
Flynn Gold Managing Director & CEO Neil Marston said:
“This is an important strategic addition to our extensive portfolio of high-quality gold exploration tenure in North-East Tasmania. The new Exploration Licence Application encompasses highly prospective ground covering the strike extensions to the Beaconsfield Gold Mine host sequence. This was the largest gold mine in North-East Tasmania with historical production of about 1.8 million ounces of gold when underground mining operations ceased at Beaconsfield in 2012.
“The acquisition complements our strategic focus on exploring for high-grade gold in North-East Tasmania, a recognized extension of the prolific Victorian goldfields.
“While the Mining Lease is excluded from our application, we believe there is significant potential for fresh gold discoveries to be made within the licence application area. Once the Exploration Licence is granted, we’ll compile and evaluate the historical information to generate targets before commencing field activities.”
About the Beaconsfield-Salisbury Goldfield
Alluvial gold was first discovered in the Beaconsfield-Salisbury area in 1869 and, in 1877, the cap of the Tasmania Reef (now known as the Beaconsfield Gold Mine) was discovered outcropping on Cabbage Tree Hill.
Gold production commenced almost immediately, and the mine operated continuously until 1914. The mine was reopened in more recent times, operating between 1999 and 2012, with the gold processing plant still largely intact within the Mining Lease. The historical production of 3.785Mt @ 14.51g/t Au (1,774koz Au) makes Beaconsfield the largest gold mine in NE Tasmania.
The Tasmania Reef at the Beaconsfield Gold Mine is a Devonian aged structurally- controlled orogenic gold style quartz reef similar in type to gold deposits hosted in the Victorian orogenic belts. The reef is hosted by sediments located in the Cabbage Tree thrust block which is bound by the underlying and overlying Cabbage Tree and Cobblestone Creek Thrusts respectively (see Figure 2).
Concurrent with the early development of the Beaconsfield Gold Mine, several other small-scale mining and prospecting activities were undertaken throughout the wider goldfield, many of which are within Flynn’s licence application area, with upwards of 70 historical small-scale mines and prospects recorded over a 10km strike length. Most of these prospects are located within the same geological host rocks as the Beaconsfield deposit. Previous exploration outside of the Beaconsfield Gold Mine area was limited and many targets within Flynn’s Exploration Licence area remain poorly tested using modern techniques.
Leave a Reply