Cobar region the “hottest” location for mineral exploration

When it comes to exploring for minerals, the Cobar region is one of the “hottest” loca-tions in the state at the moment and that was evident by the large amount of interest for a geology forum in Cobar last week.
Organised by Aurelia Metals geologist, Scott Munro, the Cobar Geology Forum at the Cobar Bowling & Golf Club last Wednesday attracted almost 60 people.
“The Cobar basin and surrounds is currently the subject to well funded mineral exploration investment due to ongoing heightened com-modity prices and ongoing mineral exploration discovery success over the past decade.
“Therefore, with so many exploration compa-nies active in the area it was determined to bring Cobar district geoscientists together to listen to a number of presentations focused on the Cobar district and facilitate the exchanging of ideas,” Mr Munro told The Cobar Weekly.
While the forum was promoted specifically to those working and studying in the geosci-ence field, Mr Munro said anyone was wel-come to attend.
Among those who did attend were industry geoscientists (including graduates and long-termers) NSW Government geological survey geoscientists, drilling contractors, staff from local geological and geophysical contracting companies and underground control providers who were keen to hear the latest exploration news from five speakers.
The Geological Survey of New South Wales’ Senior Geologist (metallic minerals) Peter Downes and Geologist Liann Deyssing pre-sented on the mineral prospectivity of the Co-bar basin, and on the recent research and development initiatives that the NSW Geological Survey is undertaking with a goal to help drive a new generation of discoveries in the district.
“This included results from the recently com-pleted airborne electromagnetic survey flown in 2019, predicting the depth of cover where prospective rock types are concealed beneath the surface and recent advances in mineral geochemistry,” Mr Munro reported.
Staff from Aurelia Metals and Aeris Re-sources outlined two of the most recent mineral discoveries in the district.
Aurelia’s Adam McKinnon (General Manag-er Exploration and Business Development) spoke about the discovery of the Federation lead-zinc-gold deposit located just south of the Hera Mine at Nymagee.
Federation was discovered in April 2019 and has rapidly advanced since then to be the focus of a current feasibility study due for comple-tion in mid 2022.
Aeris’ Regional Exploration Manager Tritton Operations, Chris Raymond’s presentation was about the new Constellation copper deposit located approximately 50km northeast of the Tritton Mine, which was only discovered in November 2020.
Since then Aeris has aggressively completed further surface drilling at Constellation with the objective of reporting on a maiden mineral resource estimate in the near future.
Drilling to date has defined copper minerali-sation over an 850m down plunge extent.
Josh Bryant, General Manager People & Risk at Mitchell Services, spoke about how they are integrating technology into their business to improve both production and safety.
In his presentation, Mr Bryant talked about improving critical risk management, safety improvements they had made based on a “learning from work” safety culture and a new generation of drilling rigs that are increasingly “hands free”.
Mr Munro said attendees welcomed the op-portunity to discuss the current mineral trends and he now plans to organise a follow-up fo-rum in a few months time.