THE ASSOCIATION OF APPLIED

GEOCHEMISTS
22nd International Geochemical
Exploration Symposium - Perth 2005
“From Tropics to Tundra“

Centre Forrest Prospect in the Ularring Rock Proj-

ect is an unusual new gold discovery made in 2000
by Sipa Resources more than 50 km from any previ-
ous known Au occurrence, directly through follow-
up of open file geochemical data.

The discovery was made by field checking anoma-

lous samples in the CSIRO - AGE laterite geochem-
istry database, collected in the mid-1980’s and
released to open file by the Geological Survey of
Western Australia in 1998. After multi-element pro-
cessing Sipa outlined ten separate target areas (Fig
2) in the south-west Yilgarn and collected eighty
samples including five samples near Ularring Rock.

Initially, the senior author (CB) visited the location

of the CSIRO-AGE sample No G01468, which was
reported to contain 16 ppb Au and 890 ppm Cu. No
outcrop could be found at the nominal location so
ironstone subcrop/lag located 200m to the north-
west adjacent to a fenced public road was sampled
(No 126013). This sample returned 7 ppb Au and
349 ppm Cu. Samples were also taken from lag in a
patch of uncleared bush on the western side of
Minney Road 300m north-west again from sample
No 126013. These two samples 126014 and 15 con-
tained <1 and 10 ppb Au and 646 and 536 ppm Cu
respectively. Finally a sample (No 126016) was
taken from just over the fence on the eastern side
of Minney Road yet another 500m north-west from
samples 126014 and 15. This was of lag shed from
a small knoll capped with scattered laterite and situ-
ated within a private paddock. This sample, located
a full kilometre north-west of the nominal site of the
CSIRO-AGE sample (Fig. 7), returned a value of 131
ppb Au, 16 ppm Cu, 1.4 ppm Bi and 32 ppm W. It is
this sample which led directly to the identification
of the Centre Forest Prospect, located directly
beneath the laterite knoll (Fig. 4). No sample from
the other nine target areas returned a result consid-
ered worthy of follow up.

The original CSIRO-AGE sample that led to the dis-

covery of Centre Forrest generates an anomalous
response on the imaged geochemical maps for Au,
Cu and, to a lesser extent, W. A nearby sample is
anomalous in Bi (Fig 2). Many other target areas are
only gold anomalous. This multi-element signature
made Ularring Rock one of the highest priority tar-
gets at the time the initial sampling program was
conducted in 2000.

Follow up sampling of the 50 x 50 m Centre Forest

laterite knoll in 2000 and 2001 returned values of up
to 2.0 g/t Au, 280 ppm Cu, 70 ppm Bi and 1200 ppm
W. The knoll has a central zone of duricrust after
strongly weathered garnetiferous mineralisation
(Fig. 3) and composite duricrust made up of quartz-
rich pisoliths, some of which also contain weath-
ered garnets (Fig. 5). The prospect was then tested
by air-core drilling in 2001, RC drilling in 2003 and
diamond drilling in 2004 (Figs 6 & 7b). The diamond
drilling was carried out by Placer-Dome who are
Sipa Exploration’s current joint-venture partners on
the Ularring Rock Project. Placer have also under-
taken large regional aeromagnetic, ground-water,
auger, rock-chip and stream sampling programs
and 1:10,000 scale mapping since entering the joint
venture in mid 2004. These surveys have led to the
recognition of a number of discrete targets where
follow up sampling and drilling is planned.

Although drilling to date indicates that Centre For-

est is sub-economic, intersections such as 37 m @
0.72 g/t Au and 0.26% Cu in the weathered zone and
32 m @ 0.73 g/t Au and 0.16% Cu in fresh rock dem-
onstrate the presence of very significant
mineralisation. There appears to be only minor
supergene enrichment and limited dispersion: high
gold in duricrust is located directly above hypogene
mineralisation.

The wide mineralised zones are focussed along a

high-strain zone composed of quartz-garnet-biotite-
cordierite—pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite developed
between amphibolites and granite (Figs 6 & 7b).
Southern Brook (a base metals prospect discovered
in 1982-85 and located 4km to the SE) has similar
geology and Au-Cu-Bi-W-Te trace element signa-
ture. This suggests both are products on of an
intrusion-related hydrothermal event and raises the
possibility of comparison to the giant Boddington
deposit, located some 140 km to the south-west.

Acknowledgements

The author thanks both Sipa Resources Limited and

Placer Dome Australia Limited for giving permis-
sion of to publish this poster. Assistance by Alfred
Eggo in generating the gridded geochemical maps
and compiling the poster is also gratefully acknowl-
edged. Finally, I thank my wife for pushing me that
“extra mile” to head further up the road and actually
take sample 126016.

Ularring Rock Tenement

Location Plan