LOCATION

The tenements comprising the Wilcherry Hill Project are centred about 30 km north of the township of Kimba on the northern Eyre Peninsula of South Australia. The sealed EyreHighway (National Highway 1) passes through Kimba and graded service roads and pastoral station tracks provide access into the project area. Most of the area is natural bush with land use confined to low-density sheep grazing.

Tenure

Trafford entered into an Option Agreement, dated 15thFebruary 2006, with Aquila Resources Ltd. to acquire 100% ownership of four contiguous tenements collectively known as the Wilcherry Hill Project.

The Wilcherry Hill Project area comprises four Exploration Licences, covering 976 sq km as summarized in the table below and shown in Figures 2, 3 and 4. Contiguous title to most of the area has been held since the early 1980’s. The original tenements were explored by Shell and then by a number of joint ventures until, following a series of corporate takeovers, AngloGold Ltd took control and gained full ownership. Aquila Resources Ltd acquired the project from AngloGold in 2002.

GEOLOGY

Regional Geology

The Project area is situated in the south-eastern part of the Gawler Craton , an ancient crystalline shield comprising Archaean to Mesoproterozoic age metasediments, volcanics and granites that has undergone multiple events of tectonic deformation, granite intrusion and metamorphism. Regional geological and tectonic synthesis shows the area to be in the Cleve Domain of the Craton based on its structural, metamorphic and stratigraphic characteristics.

Project Geology

The Project area is dominated by metasediments of the Palaeoproterozoic Hutchison Group unconformably overlying early Palaeoproterozoic Miltalie Gneiss and Archaean granulites and gneisses of the Sleaford Complex.

The Hutchison Group consists of metamorphosed clastic marine sediments, iron formations, carbonates and mafic volcanics. Deformation and metamorphism occurred during the Kimban Orogeny (1850-1700 Ma) and was accompanied by the syntectonic intrusion of the Moody Suite granites. The result is a northwest trending igneous - metamorphic complex of metasedimentary rocks, amphibolite, schist, gneiss and granite. The Palaeoproterozoic units are overlain by the younger Gawler Range Volcanics and are intruded by the contemporaneous Hiltaba Suite Granites. The Hiltaba Suite/Gawler Range magmatic event (1595-1575 Ma) represents a major Mesoproterozoic tectonic/tectonothermal event, which affected much of the Gawler Craton and is believed to have been responsible for widespread gold, uranium and base metal mineralisation.

Widespread surficial cover obscures much bedrock outcrop and weathering has produced a regolith of kaolinised saprolite to an average depth of around 40 m. The ground water is saline and there is strong geochemical depletion in the regolith throughout the area. Pedogenic calcrete is well developed in the soils and upper regolith.  

Regional Mineralisation  

Brecciation, fracturing and alteration accompanied the intrusion of the Hiltaba Suite granites into the older Palaeoproterozoic metasediments and granites. This is the major gold and gold-copper-uranium mineralising event on the Gawler Craton. The central Gawler Craton hosts Dominion Mining Ltd’s rich Challenger gold mine and other significant gold deposits and prospects such as, Tunkillia.