EL9932 Caircross - An undrilled, bonanza-grade polymetallic target over the most intense IP anomaly ever recorded in Australia
Updated: 17 hours ago
In 1967 the Electrolytic Zinc Company ran a dipole–dipole IP survey across a range of low hills west of Port Macquarie. What came back was a chargeable body more than three miles long. EZ described it as the largest and most intense IP anomaly then found in Australia.
Nine operators followed over the next forty-three years. Between them they proved the system makes grade — 15.30 % Zn in HR4, 4.62 % Cu and 150 g/t Ag in MC1. Not one of them put a diamond hole into the strongest part of the anomaly.
It is still there. It is still undrilled. And it is now held under a single granted licence.
FIGURE 1 — Three things rarely sit in the same place: a system-scale geophysical anomaly, drill-confirmed grade, and a target nobody has tested. At Cairncross they do.
Companies who worked this system include BHP, Western Mining, CRA, Billiton/Shell/CSR and Homestake. Every one of them found real mineralisation. Every one of them walked away for economic or exploration-model reasons — not because the geology failed. The single best target they defined has never had a drill hole.
That target is the Greenbourne Creek Zone (GCZ).
Figure 1. Cairncross target plan. The GCZ (★) sits on the interpreted IP anomaly on the flank of an inferred buried granite, framed by a proven high-grade skarn cluster (drilled) and a string of untested Ag, Au and Bi occurrences — all inside one granted licence. Occurrence positions from NSW Government open-file data; interpretive layers schematic.
Why this one is different
A bonanza grade sitting at surface, over an undrilled target. A rock-chip from the shaft dump on the GCZ assayed 15.9% Pb, 1,060 g/t Ag, 0.8 g/t Au (BHP, 1986).
The anomaly beneath it is exceptional. The 1967 induced-polarisation survey called it "the largest and most intense IP anomaly then found in Australia" — >3 miles long, frequency effect 11–19%.
The system demonstrably makes grade. Historic drilling returned 2.2% Cu / 15.3% Zn (HR4) and 4.6% Cu / 10.3% Zn / 150 g/t Ag / 0.6 g/t Au (MC1) — from a shallow, secondary cluster.
The engine is there. Native bismuth, bismuth-telluride and boiling fluid inclusions (264–384 °C) — described in the historic petrology as "an ideal situation for the precipitation of gold."
Why it's still open — and why now
The four historic holes over the IP anomaly were shallow and stopped above the projected host horizon (~320–380 m). The grade cluster was dismissed as "narrow and discontinuous" — at 1971 copper prices. And the diagnostic pathfinders that would flag this style of system have never been measured in the public dataset.
Copper has since re-rated from ~US$0.60/lb at the last serious exit to ~US$4.50–5.00/lb. Modern EM and multi-element geochemistry didn't exist for these teams. And the ground is now consolidated under a single granted licence for the first time in decades.
Figure 2. The concept in section: a mineralised shaft and a very strong IP anomaly sitting above a host horizon the historic holes never reached. One deep hole tests it. Schematic — depths are structural projections.
Don't take our word for it
Every number above is drawn from NSW Government open-file records you can pull yourself. Start with the shaft assay and three-zone model in report R00008831, the original IP survey in R00028111, and the drilled grades in R00026353 — all on the GSNSW DIGS database — and confirm the granted tenure (EL9932) on MinView.
The opportunity
CAADIA Metals has compiled and verified the full system against primary sources into a technical synthesis, with a costed, staged programme to drug-test the concept for a fraction of a single drill hole.
→ Do the background reading — the public trail stands on its own.→ Then sign a mutual NDA to receive the full Cairncross Technical Synthesis and discuss an earn-in / joint venture.
Historical results are from open-file company reports, are not reported under the JORC Code (2012), and no Mineral Resource or Exploration Target is declared. The GCZ shaft result is a surface rock-chip from a high-grade shoot, not a drill intercept. Any IOCG affinity is a working hypothesis to be tested. Full qualifications are set out in the Technical Synthesis.
