Talagandra

Geological setting and mineral system

The three prospects sit in a fault-bounded Silurian volcanic–sedimentary basin of the eastern Lachlan Orogen, hosted by the same lithostratigraphic package (Westmead Park Formation of Smith 1965, equivalent to Canberra Formation unit Smc of Abell 1992), on the belt that hosts Woodlawn and Captains Flat in correlative Silurian stratigraphy (Nisbet 1979, GS1979/129, R00015991). Two complementary deposit-style models are supported by the evidence and are not mutually exclusive: Kuroko-type stratabound VMS (primary), and Irish-type / SEDEX shale-hosted Zn–Pb with rift-margin fault control, the latter resting in part on a 6 m zone of 40–70 % coarse subhedral pyrite in black-shale facies in DDH 8727B-3, described by Pacminex as “framboid-like, syngenetic or diagenetic (?)” (PMR 155/76, R00016955). Depth statements are inferences, not measurements: the Oak Hill high-grade-kernel window at 200–400 m vertical is a model-class projection from intersections above ~176 m — no historical hole on the project has reached it — and the Zone B depth-to-top is inferred, not established [not yet measured], because the 60–80 m percussion-failure depth is a drilling artefact, not a geological contact.

The grades — what the system has already demonstrated (GSNSW open-file; drill intervals are down-hole lengths, not true widths)
Result	Confirmation status
1.0 % Cu, 9.9 % Pb, 1,900 ppm Zn, 0.38 g/t Au — surface rock chip A 47117, Bullivant Gossans, Bedulluck (340S / 1,765E Pacminex grid)	Verified (Appendix C, v4.1 closure): assays read against R00016954 Table I and consistent with PMR 25/75 Table 1 (R00022173); primary galena–chalcopyrite–sphalerite textures confirmed by the Curtis 1975 polished-section study, authenticated within PMR 12/76 (R00016954). No discrepancy between sources.
3 m at 5,000 ppm Zn (86–89 m) and 3 m at 5,100 ppm Zn + 1,100 ppm Pb (107–111 m) — DDH 8727G-4, Bedulluck, 1976, stacked intervals in altered dacitic tuff	Reported verbatim from the machine-read primary drill log (PMR 155/76, R00016955); no open verification item. 1970s AAS values, not independently re-assayed — modern ICP-MS re-assay of the preserved G-4 core is a costed Phase 1 item.
Reportedly 4 m at 3,800 ppm Zn (56–60 m), hole terminated inside the target at 64 m — percussion hole CFTNSW-78-P2, Westmead Park Zone B, 1978	Disclosed as unverified (Appendix C items V5–V6): sourced to the image-only Amoco final report (R00015991), not yet machine-read. Phase 1 page-read of R00015991 resolves both the interval and the termination-in-target fact; a negative read re-designs or drops the Zone B hole (drill-plan gate G4). Percussion sampling may under-report grade.
7.2 m of 20 % pyrrhotite with 1–2 % pyrite and trace chalcopyrite (110.8–118.0 m) — CFTNSW-78-1, Oak Hill, 1978, within ~28–30 m cumulative sulphides over 203.2 m	Visual core-log estimates by the original operator, not assay-verified — stated as such wherever cited. Establishes a laterally extensive sulphide system on the 1.1 km conductor; it is not an economic intercept and is not presented as one.

Exploration history — six operators, documented exits. Every campaign intersected sulphide mineralisation; no departure followed a completed test of today's priority targets
Period	Operator (tenure)	Model targeted	Departure reason
1971–74	Kewanee / Ellesmere, Esso JV from May 1972 (EL 434)	Stratiform massive sulphide on regional gossan trends	Relinquished May 1974 after regional diamond drilling (Deacon, Hardwicke, B11 — not the present targets) resolved gossans into fault- and shear-hosted pyrrhotite (Boots 1973, GS1973/384, R00023357). Whether any EL 434 hole tested the Oak Hill conductor is not yet established (Phase 1 item).
1973–76	Mt Mejack / CSR–Pacminex JV (PL 9039–46)	Stratabound and fault-controlled base metals (both acknowledged in PMR 25/75 §2.1)	CSR withdrew November 1976 — a strategic portfolio decision rather than a technical rejection of the prospect (Clappison 1977, PMR 1/77, R00016511).
1977–79	Amoco Minerals (EL 1058)	Kuroko-type VMS beneath conductors and soil anomalies	Recommended relinquishment 1979, concluding limited potential for economic base metals at Oak Hill and recommending no further work (Nisbet 1979, R00015991 — paraphrased; image-only source, verification pending) — reached with no hole below ~176 m vertical, no diamond hole at Zone B, and the Crone-recommended Westmead Park hole undrilled.
2007–09	Southern Gold Ltd (EL 6896, EL 6898)	Regional base metals	No drilling. Relinquished citing landholder-access difficulty (Gerhard 2009a, 2009b).
2013–15	CGNM Resources (EL 8051, ~200 km² regional)	Regional base metals	No drilling; three rock chips inside the footprint, no gossan samples. Relinquished citing funding squeeze in the commodity cycle and land-access difficulty (CGNM 2014, 2016).

Why the grade is still available — in the operators' own words

Wrong commodity, wrong model. CSR's November 1976 withdrawal was a strategic portfolio decision, not a technical rejection of the prospect (PMR 1/77, R00016511). The model-driven exit on the belt is documented next door: after thirteen holes at Kingfisher, Amoco's final report concluded that “no economic intersections of basemetals have been encountered” and attributed the failure to a setting that “was not sufficiently reducing” for base-metal sulphide deposition (Roxburgh & Nisbet 1977, R00013146, Summary and Environment of Deposition). Pacminex had already logged the opposite at Bedulluck — the B-3 black-shale pyrite zone quoted in §1 is precisely the reducing facies the exit model said was missing. And targeting was blind where it mattered most: “Geophysical measurements were severely affected by the presence of a major three phase transmission line. No I.P. measurements were possible…” (PMR 25/75 §3.6, R00022173). G-4 — the only hole ever drilled at the Bullivant cluster — was a geochemistry-led hole into IP-blind ground, collared off-plan; its log records: “No sulphide concentrations correlatable with surface ironstones were apparent in the drill core” (PMR 155/76, p.10, R00016955). The gossan source was missed, not tested out.

The analytical gap. Every historical assay stands as reported from 1970s AAS work on partial digests and narrow suites (Amoco's rock-chip method: Cu, Pb, Zn, Ag, Au, As only — Nisbet 1979, p.11); no historical sample has ever been analysed for the modern SEDEX/VMS pathfinder suite (Tl, Sb, Bi, Hg, Mo, In, Ge, Se). The DIGS audit located 116 boxes of preserved Pacminex core at the GSNSW Londonderry Core Library (MIN_025067–070), with Amoco Oak Hill core also held — the pathfinder question is answerable for A$12,000–20,000 in assays plus A$4,000–8,000 preparation, without a drill rig. Independent pathfinders already on file: arsenic soil anomalism (a VMS pathfinder) across the Westmead Park grid, and 0.38 g/t Au co-anomalous with the 9.9 % Pb at A 47117.

The untested target. Per the synthesis: an implied feeder sulphide body has not been intersected by any drillhole at the Bullivant Gossans, and the ground has had no meaningful follow-up drilling for approximately 50 years. At Westmead Park Zone B, any body beneath the 64 m percussion failure has not yet been drilled, sampled or assayed by diamond methods — and a formal 1978 recommendation was never actioned: Crone's PEM interpretation specified a drill-ready hole to 150 m on a PEM–magnetic coincident conductor that Amoco never drilled (Nisbet 1978, R00015989). At Oak Hill, the 200–400 m vertical interval where a VMS high-grade kernel would typically be expected beneath the pyrrhotite halo has not yet been drilled.

The miss, precisely. None of the three targets was missed by geology — each was missed by geometry or by a stopped drill. At Bedulluck, G-4's as-drilled collar sits ~45 m south and ~35 m east of its targeting plan and its down-hole trace diverges from the high-tenor surface cluster (PMR 155/76, R00016955); the hole passed near, not through, the projected feeder position — the ~100 m miss distance is a working figure pending the trajectory re-model (item N5). At Westmead Park Zone B, the drill was stopped by mechanics, not results: P2 was terminated inside the target at 64 m on loss of air return, and nothing beneath has been drilled, sampled or assayed by diamond methods. At Oak Hill, the drills simply stopped too shallow: all three 1978 holes ended by ~176 m vertical, above the 200–400 m window where the model class typically localises high-grade kernels. Three targets, three misses of position or depth — none a tested-and-failed result.

System scale and the 2026 price lens

Footprint (dimensions, never tonnes). Bedulluck: a 5 km strike-length cluster of more than 20 high-tenor base-metal gossans. Zone B: a >4× background Pb–Zn soil anomaly over ~200 m with coincident chargeability, resistivity-low and magnetic responses at an acid-intrusive contact. Oak Hill: a 1.1 km coincident PEM–magnetic conductor with coherent multi-element surface geochemistry over 900 m. Depth-tested: no hole on the project exceeds ~176 m vertical, against the 200–400 m window where the model class typically localises high-grade kernels.

Model-class ranges (belong to the model class, not the project). If Zone B is a Kuroko-type lens, the synthesis's expected geometry is ~200 m strike and 5–20 m width for a discrete lens (to 100 m for a vein-style envelope). Gossan enrichment factors are typically ~0.5–5, so the 9.9 % Pb gossan is consistent with anything from narrow metre-scale higher-grade veins to tens-of-metres-scale lower-grade lenses; a specific thickness and grade is not derivable from the surface signal. Belt permissibility rests on Woodlawn (historically published figure of the order of 10 Mt at 2 % Cu, 5 % Pb, 8 % Zn, 50 g/t Ag) and Captains Flat (of the order of 4 Mt at 0.7 % Cu, 6 % Pb, 10 % Zn, 56 g/t Ag) — foreign historical estimates, unverified (item N1), analogue context only, belonging to the belt deposits, not this project.

The price lens (the synthesis author's commercial argument — context only, no recovery, mining or processing costs applied, not attributed to any historical operator). Project economics are leveraged primarily to Zn and Pb, with Ag–Au credit metals at Westmead Park and Bedulluck and Cu most prominent at Oak Hill. The last exit was made into a weak funding cycle, not today's price environment — CGNM explicitly cited commodity-cycle funding constraints alongside land access in relinquishing EL 8051 (2013–15). Sensitivity to the Cu : Zn : Pb price ratio and the A$ exchange rate is to be modelled forward; the stage-gated structure caps cumulative capital at risk at the Phase 3 envelope.

The targets

Primary — Bullivant Gossans feeder (TLG-DD-01). Known technical limitation, stated plainly: there is no direct geophysical detection of the feeder. The 1976 IP was blocked by the transmission line; modern airborne data resolves the NNE Carrington Fault corridor and a low-K embayment at regional resolution only — the embayment is a Phase 1 verification item, prospect-scale fault resolution is not yet measured, and the ~100 m G-4 miss distance is a working figure pending the trajectory re-model (item N5). Designed test: TLG-DD-01, 180–220 m at −50° to −60°, through the full projected 40–120 m vertical window, final collar fixed only after the N5 re-model and Phase 2 IP inversion.

Secondary. TLG-DD-03 (Zone B re-drill, 170–200 m mirroring P2): the anomaly is chargeable and magnetic but PEM-quiet — consistent with a galena–sphalerite-rich, pyrite-poor lens or with the belt's barren-pyrrhotite base case; diamond core discriminates. TLG-DD-04 (Oak Hill depth extension, 430–500 m to the 250–400 m vertical window, ~110 m east of CFTNSW-78-1; down-hole EM preserves information value even on a geological miss). TLG-DD-05 (porphyry-contact extension north of CFTNSW-78-3, 170–210 m, where the Pb–Zn soil anomaly is strongest). TLG-DD-02 (Walmsley North / IP Zone D, 200–220 m; B-1's sub-economic Pb–Zn left the Walmsley North gossan strike untested).

Testing the thesis — gates, kill criteria, cost to answer (per Synthesis §6 and Drill Programme Design v1.0)
Phase + cost	Scope	Gate & kill criterion
Phase 1 — Desktop verification. A$90,000–160,000; 2–3 months	Page-read of the image-only R00015991 (items V1–V9); re-log and 4-acid ICP-MS pathfinder re-assay of preserved Londonderry core; MGA-zone resolution (Z1); MinView tenure, cadastre and MINOCC review.	Gate: proceed only if the ground is open, ≥70 % of the priority sub-block area is access-feasible, and pathfinder geochemistry supports the deposit-style hypothesis at ≥1 target. The kill answer for the pathfinder question costs A$16,000–28,000 and is binary; a negative Zone B page-read re-designs or drops the Priority-2 hole (gate G4).
Phase 2 — ELA and pre-drill fieldwork. A$180,000–330,000; 3–6 months	Consolidated ELA; landholder agreements; grid re-establishment tied to ≥2 independent historical monuments per grid; modern ground IP/TEM with 2D inversion; final collar fixing.	Gate: licence granted, access agreements over the Stage 1 drill spots, and discrete modern anomalies coincident with the historical positions with depth/dip fit for drill design. No coincident modern anomaly = a target-specific downgrade before any drilling capital is committed.
Phase 3 — Stage 1 drilling. A$1,050,000–1,750,000; 4–6 months incl. reporting	Five NQ holes, ~1,150–1,330 m at ~A$900–1,350/m all-in: TLG-DD-01 (180–220 m), -03 (170–200 m), -04 (430–500 m, with DHEM), -05 (170–210 m), -02 (200–220 m). QAQC: CRMs, blanks and field duplicates at ≥1:20, umpire checks on ≥5 % of mineralised samples, gyro down-hole surveys, JORC 2012 Table 1 documentation from day one.	Each hole carries explicit success and kill criteria; per the design, the programme is “designed to kill or advance each target definitively within the A$1.05–1.75M Phase 3 envelope”. Sub-economic pyrrhotite without economic Pb–Zn–Ag is a FAIL, not a pass — the belt's base-case outcome. A negative result re-frames the target to that documented conservative case, and a decision point after TLG-DD-01 and TLG-DD-03 allows contraction to the minimum viable two-hole case.

Technical Manager: Dr Tim McConachy FAusIMM (1974), Senior Fellow SEG, former Rio Tinto Chief Geologist.

Data room (under NDA): technical synthesis v4.1, Phase 1 drill programme design, source register and figure set.

Contact: Doug Alcock, Managing Director, CAADIA Metals Pty Ltd — dalcock@caadiametals.com.au

No JORC (2012) Mineral Resource, Ore Reserve or Exploration Target is declared or implied. Historical results are compiled from GSNSW open-file (DIGS) records, have not been verified by a Competent Person for public reporting, and are provided for context only. The IRGS / distal-replacement interpretation is a working hypothesis under test; alternative interpretations of the geophysical data exist. Earn-in terms are indicative and non-binding, subject to contract, due diligence and grant of the Exploration Licence.