Koba Resources holds a 100% interest in the Mt Garnet Tin-Tungsten Project located ~100km southwest of Cairns in North Queensland.
The Mt Garnet Project covers approximately 353km2 and is host to extensive mineralisation including more than 300 historical tin mines. This project is heavily underexplored with only 64 holes (for 7,557m) drilled previously. Previous work here has focused on two main prospects: the Boulder Prospect and the Mt Gilmore Mine area.
The Gilmore Tin Mine was the largest individual tin producer within Koba’s tenure. Past production reported 26,169 tonnes of ore grading 7.6% Sn. Mining was initially undertaken between 1906 and 1922 before being reactivated between 1958 and 1980, Gilmore reached a depth of 193m via a shaft and adit.
Between 1979 and 1980 a previous explorer drilled 13 holes for 2,070m around the Gilmore Mine to target extensions to the tin mineralisation (see Figure 1). Drilling returned significant results, including:
In addition, notable tungsten mineralisation was intersected, including:
A further six holes (for 756m) were drilled approximately 1km east of the Gilmore Mine, drilling intersected lower-grade, potentially bulk-tonnage tin mineralisation. Significant intersections included:
Figure 1. Plan showing the location of historic mines and drilling in the Gilmore Mine area, Mt Garnet Tin-Tungsten Project.
Very limited exploration and no drilling has been undertaken at Gilmore since 1980, and the area remains heavily under-explored.
Numerous other mines exist in the Gilmore area including the Gladstone Mine 4km to the southeast where past production of 4,000 tonnes at 5% Sn is reported.
The Boulder Prospect extends over a strike length of approximately 3km, centred on the Great Boulder Mine, which produced 1,364 tonnes @ 13.4% Sn (see Figure 2). The area also includes alluvial tin workings that operated in numerous creeks in the area, predominantly south of the Boulder Prospect.
Mineralisation at the Boulder Prospect is hosted in granite, as cassiterite within quartz veins as well as extensive greisen-altered zones within the granites. Previous explorers identified high-grade mineralisation in drilling, with significant results including:
In addition to high-grade mineralisation previous explorers identified very thick intervals of lower-grade, bulk-tonnage style tin mineralisation with significant drill results including:
The Company considers the Boulder Prospect to be highly prospective, with excellent potential to define both very thick, bulk-tonnage style mineralisation and discrete zones of higher-grade tin mineralisation.
Numerous additional historic mines are also present north of the Boulder Prospect in an area that is under-explored, extending from the Denford Mine to the Normanby Mine (see Figure 6). The area warrants further exploration as it has potential for the discovery of similar mineralisation to that identified at the Boulder Prospect.
Figure 2. Plan of the Boulder Prospect showing the distribution of historic mines and drilling including select production figures and significant intercepts part of the Mt Garnet Tin-Tungsten Project.
