Project Summary

Exploration at Rover is targeting ironstone-hosted gold-copper of Tennant Creek style. The hosting ironstone bodies are contained within a basement inlier of Proterozoic Warramunga Group, the same sequence that hosts the Tennant Creek deposits. The basement at Rover is overlain by 100 to 200 metres of Cambrian Wiso Basin sediments, and the prospective ironstone bodies have been mapped through this cover by detailed airborne and ground magnetic surveys, as well as gravity surveying. The project is regarded as having outstanding discovery potential, and is interpreted as essentially a repetition of the Tennant Creek mineralized district concealed by younger cover. Adelaide Resources holds a key strategic tenement position in the field, and is proceeding with systematic drill testing of the most highly rated magnetic and gravity targets within its ground.

Initial drilling of magnetic targets at Rover by Peko Mines Ltd between 1971 and 1982 intersected several magnetic ironstone bodies carrying Tennant Creek-style gold/copper mineralization. Rover 1 , located on the southern boundary of EL7739, returned intersections that included 15 metres at 17.3 g/t gold and 0.7% copper, and 20 metres at 5.2 g/t gold and 1.7% copper. Other ironstone targets drilled at the time were subject to more limited testing, and several that returned elevated gold and copper values are within the current Adelaide Resources ELs.  Access restrictions after 1982 prevented any further work, and the field remained dormant until March 2005 when the company acquired its 100% interest in the Rover ELs from Newmont.

Exploration re-commenced in 2005 with new ground magnetic survey grids  over ten targets, most of which were known to be associated with Tennant Creek-style ironstones from scattered early drill holes. In late 2005 three diamond core holes testing the Rover 12 target intersected magnetite ironstone carrying anomalous copper and gold, and in the second half of 2006 further drilling tested Rover 12 (2 holes), Rover 4 (2 holes), and Rover 14 (1 hole). Positive results from the Rover 4 holes made it a high priority target, and its status was confirmed by follow up holes in 2007 that intersected significant copper mineralization with minor gold, consisting of 15 metres of 2.07% copper and 0.15 g/t gold, including 5 metres at 3.36% copper in intensely altered sediments and hematite-magnetite-jasper-dolomite ‘ironstone’.

The 2008 drilling campaign focused on Rover 4 and more positive results were returned from five completed holes. These included some higher grade gold intersections eg 2 metres at 20 g/t from altered sediments underlying the main ironstone body, and possible evidence of potential for development of a separate high grade gold zone.

As this work was progressing, drilling of Rover 1 by Westgold Resources has outlined a significant new Tennant Creek-style gold-copper deposit that extends across their tenement boundary into Adelaide Resources ground. The company’s drilling campaign during 2009 was therefore directed at exploring this extension to the Rover 1 deposit, as well as following up the positive results from Rover 4. 

Recent drilling from both Rover 1 and Rover 4 has returned further significant results. At Rover 1, notable intersections include 55 metres at 3.36% Cu, (including 9 metres at 8.00% Cu), and 34 metres at 2.05% Cu and 2.14 g/t Au from hole R1ARD30.  At Rover 4 recent holes have also returned wide intersections of significant copper mineralisation, eg R4ARD28 with 21 metres at 2.33% Cu and 0.94 g/t Au, plus 17 metres at 1.81% Cu and 0.03 g/t Au.

This highly successful exploration campaign by Adelaide Resources shows that the ironstones of the Rover field are the hosts of a district-wide and significant copper-gold mineralizing event. There is now a substantial body of evidence that a significant mineralized district comparable to Tennant Creek is developed in the Rover field, concealed by overlying Wiso Basin cover.