EL9938 Back Creek — a silver–gold system hidden in a tin-era dataset

Three majors drilled Back Creek. None of them tested it for silver or gold.

Between 1979 and 1995, BHP, Kennecott/Shell and WMC explored this ground under a tin-only model, found sub-economic tin, and walked away. Their drill core, soils and rock chips are all in the open file — and modern re-examination shows the record is not a closed question. It's an incomplete one.

Every historic drill hole was assayed for the tin-era suite. Gold, bismuth and tellurium were never determined in a single drill sample. Tungsten was mostly below detection. The subsurface has been drilled — it has simply never been assayed for the pathfinders that matter.

Figure 1 — The assay gap. Historic drill coverage set against the elements each programme actually assayed. Au, Bi and Te are blank across every hole. This is the opportunity: a drilled system that was never tested for the metals we're chasing. (Historical open-file data; not verified by a Competent Person.)

What's actually there

The one result independently reproduced on the licence is an arsenopyrite gossan at Anomaly 155: 14–14.4% As, 36–38 g/t Ag, 4,750 ppm Pb, 86 ppm Bi — sampled twice, two years apart, by different operators. It sits directly on a coherent N–S magnetic linear that has never been drilled. A second high-silver, high-bismuth gossan (65 g/t Ag, 2.5% Pb, 240 ppm Bi) sits ~2 km along trend, in exactly the distal position a zoned system would predict.

Figure 2 — Untested targets under modern geophysics. The 155 gossan sits on a coherent N–S magnetic linear (panel B) that runs the length of the licence and has never been drill-tested. Modern radiometrics also flag a discrete, untested feature to the west. Interpretation only; images georeferenced from NSW MinView. (Historical rock-chip values are selective samples.)

The concept

A distal Ag–Pb–Bi (±Au) replacement system, most likely peripheral to a reduced intrusion — the silver-and-bismuth halo of a larger mineralising system that the tin explorers sampled straight through without ever looking for the right elements. Confirmed high-grade silver at surface. A drilled-but-never-assayed subsurface. Untested magnetic targets along strike. Three independent reasons the story isn't finished.

Why now, and why it's cheap to test

CAADIA's first move is low-cost and in-house: re-assay ~200 archived drill splits for gold and a full multi-element suite, a short field programme over the gossans, and infill ground magnetics — testing the thesis before a single new hole is drilled. Drilling is staged, partner-funded, and committed only to targets that pass explicit criteria.

Take a closer look

Everything above is built from public, open-file GSNSW data — you can verify the historic assays and the geophysics yourself in DIGS and MinView. If you'd rather see it worked up, the full Technical Synthesis — target definitions, pass/fail criteria, cross-sections, the re-assay programme and JV terms (Door A / Door B) — is available under a short NDA.

→ Do your own dig on EL 9938, or sign the NDA and we'll send the synthesis.

CAADIA Metals Pty Ltd (ACN 693 096 632). Historical results are from open-file reports and have not been verified by a Competent Person; rock-chip values are selective samples. No JORC (2012) Mineral Resource, Ore Reserve or Exploration Target is stated or implied.