Introduction

Kaili’s Kookynie Gold Project is situated 55 km north of Leonora within the Yilgarn Craton region of Western Australia and 600 km north east of Perth (FIGURE 1). Access from Kalgoorlie to the tenements is along the sealed Goldfields Highway to north of Menzies and then east along the Kookynie Road. The Kalgoorlie region has a large skilled workforce and excellent infrastructure for the development of gold projects.

There are station tracks along fence lines and elsewhere that afford access to the other parts of the tenements.

Land tenure and physiography

The topography is subdued and characterized by low rounded hills with the relief ranging between 100 m and 200 m. The only prominent topographic features are low extensive scarps or “breakaways” that commonly mark an abrupt junction between the “old” and “new” plateau surfaces and only occur in deeply weathered or kaolinized rock.

The climate is semi-arid with an annual average rainfall of between 225-250mm. In general, the rainfall is more reliable in the south. Flood rains occur occasionally caused by cyclonic conditions originating from the northwest. Summers are hot and dry with maximum temperatures frequently above 36⁰C. The winter is cool to mild with occasional frosts.

Vegetation is varied and belies the semi-arid nature of the climate. Dense mulga scrub interspersed with tracts of more open bluebush (Kochia), saltbush (Atriplex), and eucalyptus country is common north of Lake Yindarlgooda. The sandier areas are covered with mallee, spinifex (Triodia), and occasional native pine (Callistris). Open eucalyptus woodlands comprising salmon gums, gimlet and mallee, interspersed with saltbush and bluebush cover the flat and undulating country of the south. Vegetation density increases toward the southern margin of the Sheet. The salt lakes or playas are bordered by saltbush and numerous varieties of samphire. Native pines are common on kopai dunes (gypsum) bordering the salt lakes.

FIGURE 1 Kookynie Gold Project – Satellite image showing location of the tenements (blue hatched) south of Leonora along with the operating Gwalia gold mine at Leonora and the known gold occurrences in yellow. The greenstone terrain is shown in black.

Geology

Regional Geology

The Kookynie Gold Project and lies within the central Norseman-Wiluna belt of the Eastern Goldfields Super Province of the Archaean Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia. The Tenements are located north west and south east of the former gold mining town of Kookynie. The 8 Mile tenement straddles the regionally important Mount George Shear (Figure 2), which separates the Raeside geological domain from the Niagara and Melita geological domains. The Jungle Well tenement straddles to the Emu Fault. The project area covers predominantly Melita metasediments (part of the Melita greenstone suite comprised of a bimodal rhyolite-basalt association and several dolerite sills and dykes), and biotite monzogranite (FIGURES 3 AND 4). The interpreted depositional setting for the greenstone association on Melita is the margin of a large rift basin represented by the Kalgoorlie Terrane, and greenstones are assigned to the Gindalbie Terrane.

Barley et al. (1989) divided the Norseman-Wiluna belt into two broad tectono-stratigraphic associations. The Kalgoorlie Terrane forms part of a western association, which is interpreted, as a marginal basin, bounded to the east by the Keith-Kilkenny Fault. An association containing several andesitic volcanic centres, east of the Keith-Kilkenny Fault, is interpreted as a volcanic arc. The MELITA greenstones occur within the marginal basin association near the eastern boundary with the volcanic arc association.

FIGURE 2 Kookynie Gold Project – Aeromagnetic image showing the two tenements, major structures and “domains”. Gold occurrences are shown as black crosses.

The Kookynie area is host to a significant number of gold occurrences that have been sporadically mined for over a hundred years. The three largest historical producers are Cosmopolitan, Altona and Champion. All the gold has been derived from epigenetic vein and lode-style mineralisation. The deposits are structurally controlled and many are located within iron-rich host rocks such as magnetic mafic lithologies eg dolerite sills, that are a favourable host rock for gold mineralisation throughout the Eastern Goldfields.

Figure 3 Kookynie Gold Project – Interpreted geology map showing the two tenements witihin the Melita Greenstone Belt. Mafic dominant lithologies are shown in green while felsic dominated lithologies are shown in light brown and granites in pink.

FIGURE 4 KOOKYNIE PROJECT – INTERPRETED GEOLOGY, STRUCTURE AND TARGETS