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Nov 2017 - Black Cat Syndicate

Black Cat Syndicate (BC8) – IPO to Explore the Queen Margaret Mines Area of Bulong

  • The Black Cat Syndicate have acquired (subject to approvals) most of the historic Bulong Goldfield, located only ~25km east of Kalgoorlie in WA. The Bulong Goldfield was centred on the Queen Margaret Gold Mine which officially produced ~76koz of gold from ~61kt of ore at ~39g/t (per the Queen Margaret 1979 prospectus), mostly between ~1897 & 1913. Given that gold was first discovered there in 1893, estimates of an extra >30koz have been made.
  • The Bulong Goldfield was notoriously rich in visible gold, reporting on at least 3 occasions the discovery of ~400oz "slugs" of pure visible gold (there is even a Slug Hill Prospect), and a few occasions of ~70oz/t being mined (from mines ~100ft or 200ft below surface), with the above picture of visible gold coming from waste dumps in the area.
  • After intersecting 3m @ 31.4g/t, 2m @ 38.4g/t, 9m @ 9.3g/t & 10m @ 7g/t at the Anomaly 38 prospect in DQ00 and MQ01, Anglogold concluded that the Bulong Project had the potential to host narrow-vein high-grade Kundana-style deposits which did not meet Anglogold's (then) requirements and hence the farm-in was sold back to General Gold Resources (NB: At the time, Anglogold dropped SLR's Daisy Milano for only potentially having ~1moz in resources)
  • At least 3 parallel N/S striking lodes were identified in the Queen Margaret Mines' Area by Maitland in 1919, linking into both NW/SE and NNE/SSW (similar to Cannon further south), lode structures. In 1901, an exploration cross-cut was driven ~400m (1330ft) east on 600ft level over ~13mths, intersecting at least 3 gold-containing lodes and a number of mineralised zones before reaching its target. The mine closed in 1908 possibly due to water inflow.
  • The Queen Margaret Mine spread over 1.5km of strike had two main lodes being the Main lode and the East lode. The parallel East lode was developed on 3 levels but ignored because its average grade at 10g/t to 12g/t was regarded as too low (typical cut-off grades at that time were ~18g/t to 22g/t). Most of the 500ft level was similarly apparently not stoped, because its grades were "too low" (<20g/t). QM has been dormant for over 100yrs.
  • The Queen Margaret Area appears to be another overlooked, unloved gold mine area. Two drillholes ~1km apart were drilled east-west in the late 1940's (post WW11) that sealed its fate until the 1980s, when Spargos became interested. But Spargos apparently only wanted Queen Margaret Mines for its 50% holding in Bellevue, deeming underground operations as too costly & focusing on open-cuts soon after the JV, and later acquisition.
  • Written by: Keith Goode
  • Friday, 01 December 2017