Koba Resources holds a 100% interest in the Stannary Hills Tin-Tungsten Project located ~100km southwest of Cairns in North Queensland.
The Stannary Hills Project covers 79km² and includes over 100 historical tin mines that operated between the 1880s and the 1980s (see Figure 1). Only 85 holes (for 3,985m) have been drilled to test for extensions of mineralisation within the Stannary Hills Project. Mineralisation in the area is predominantly located along two trends (i) the Kitchener Trend and (ii) the Atlanta Trend (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Plan of the Stannary Hills Project showing the extensive mineralisation in drilling and historical mines along the Kitchener and Atlanta Trends, also see Figure 2.
Kitchener Trend
The Kitchener Trend comprises numerous historical mines and high-grade drill intersections over 5km of strike length (see Figure 1). Mineralisation along the trend is hosted by quartz veining within the metasediments of the Hodgkinson Formation that overlie a granite intrusive.
A significant component of the previous production was from seven mines, situated along a 1.3km section of the Kitchener Trend (between the ‘Eclipse’ and ‘You and Me’ mines), which together produced approximately 120,000 tonnes of ore at grades averaging 2.3% Sn and up to 7.3% Sn (see Figures 1 and 2).
Most of the drilling (61 holes for 1,875m) was completed over 1.3km of strike at the Kitchener Trend and was very shallow. Significant high-grade results included:
- 9.8m @ 1.3% Sn from 7.3m; (from underground)
- 2.0m @ 4.8% Sn from 18.0m; and
- 1.2m @ 3.5% Sn from 6.1m.
Further, high-grade mineralisation has been intersected over 2km south along the Kitchener Trend, where only 4 holes were completed with results including:
- 0.7m @ 4.2% Sn from 22.5m.
These results demonstrate that high-grade, unmined mineralisation remains at multiple mines along the Kitchener Trend over approximately 5km. Mineralisation remains open and undrilled at depth and along strike between the historical mines where there are shallow, high-grade targets to be drilled.
There is also considerable potential to delineate lower-grade bulk-tonnage tin mineralisation along the Kitchener Trend. Significant assay results returned from shallow drilling at the You and Me Mine included:
- 54.0m @ 0.45% Sn from 6.0m; including
- 6.0m @ 1.7% Sn;
- 35.0m @ 0.60% Sn from 3.0m; including
- 6.0m @ 1.8% Sn from 14m; and
- 5.0m @ 1.4% Sn from 33m (hole end in mineralisation – 1.5% Sn); and
- 55.0m @ 0.26% Sn from 3.0m.
This mineralisation remains open at depth and along strike and is a priority drill target.
Figure 2. Long section showing a group of seven high-grade mines over 1.3km of strike along the Kitchener Trend and the very limited drilling completed, both between historical mines and at depth
There is an opportunity to discover significant additional mineralisation at the Stannary Hills Project by conducting additional exploration including:
- Drilling under the existing mines that remain open at depth;
- Drilling along strike between the existing historical mines that remains untested;
- Step-out drilling to test along strike from the major mines; and
- Early-stage geochemistry and geophysics to delineate new targets for drilling.
Atlanta Trend
The Atlanta Trend extends over 10km of strike and comprises a trend of historical tin mines and high-grade drill results that follows the contact of a granite body. The largest mine along the trend is the Lass O’Gowrie Mine that produced 6,885t @ 7.6% Sn. Mineralisation along the trend occurs within quartz veins and greisen alteration within the granite.
There has been very limited drilling along the Atlanta Trend with only 17 holes (for 1,528m) completed along the 10km strike length (see Figure 1) with some exceptional results including:
- 8m @ 1.2% Sn;
- 1.7m @ 1.5% Sn; and
- 1.4m @ 1.5% Sn.
There is an opportunity to discover significant additional mineralisation at the Stannary Hills Project by conducting additional exploration including:
- Drilling under the existing mines that remain open at depth;
- Drilling along strike between the existing historical mines that remains untested;
- Step-out drilling to test along strike from the major mines; and
- Early-stage geochemistry and geophysics to delineate new targets for drilling.
