Mount Lindsay (previous known as Renison West) Project, Tasmania
The Mount Lindsay Project (formerly known as Renison West) comprises two Exploration Licences covering an area of 180 km2. It is located in the Sn-W and Ni province of western Tasmania and covers the south eastern contact metamorphic aureole of the Meredith Granite. The Meredith Granite is part of a suite of Devonian granites which is very important to Sn-W mineralisation, and deposits associated with this suite include the world class Renison Bell tin mine, Mount Bischoff tin deposit, Cleveland tin deposit and King Island tungsten deposit. Cleveland and Mount Bischoff are situated around the northern margin of the Meredith Granite, and Renison Bell is located just 15 km to the southeast of the Meredith Granite. Recent exploration also indicates the development of Ni-sulphide skarns, such as the Avebury nickel deposit currently being developed by Allegiance Mining NL, where the Devonian granites intrude ultramafic rocks.

Alluvial tin was discovered in the area covered by the southern part of the tenement sometime around 1893 and subsequently developed into the alluvial Stanley River Tin Fields. Early prospecting for the source of the alluvial tin led to the location of several tin-bearing quartz-tourmaline veins within the granite on the flanks of Mt Livingstone (e.g. “Castle’s” lode) and Parsons Hood. The Mt Lindsay, Stanley Reward and Livingstone Creek cassiterite-bearing gossans deposits were subsequently discovered in the early 1900s with minor small-scale open-cut and underground tin mining occurred through to about 1932.

Later, Mt Lindsay Mining Company NL identified cassiterite (tin oxide) and then excavated numerous trenches, adits, cross-cuts and shafts to a depth of 20-30m over a distance of about 1.1km.

The Aberfoyle Tin Development Partnership took up the Mt Lindsay – Stanley River area in 1962 and over the following eight years conducted geological mapping, ground magnetic and self potential traverses, soil sampling over the defined geophysical anomalies (>1350 samples), trenching and channel sampling of the old Mt Lindsay mine, and 30 diamond core drill holes for 2,936 m.

Renison Limited (Renison) and subsequently Gold Fields Exploration Pty Ltd (Gold Fields) then drilled a further 30 diamond core holes for 10,753 m at Mt Lindsay, extending identified Sn mineralisation for a further 800 m along strike. The drilling confirmed the presence of multiple zoned skarns prospective for tin, tungsten, copper and possibly magnetite. The available reports suggest the drill core was not assayed for nickel. Small sinistral offsets of the mineralised zones on northeast striking faults were identified in the Mt Lindsay mine area, and drill hole interpretation suggested that there may be structural repetition of the target carbonate horizons.

The adjacent Stanley Reward and Livingstone Creek area (2-4 km west of Mt Lindsay) was subject to an extensive exploration programme over the 1973-1986 period by Pacminex Pty Ltd (subsidiary of CSR Ltd) and Union Corporation Pty Ltd which became Gencor (Australia) Pty Ltd. The subsequent drilling was focussed on geophysical and geochemical targets within the “Renison marker sequence”.

Renison/Gold Fields also drilled 5 reconnaissance holes into magnetic anomalies in the Webbs Creek area (approximately 14 km northeast of Mt Lindsay), intersecting more Sn-W-pyrrhotite-magnetite skarns in the Meredith Granite aureole.

The Mt Lindsay, Stanley River and Webbs Creek skarns are conspicuous highs on regional 200 m line spacing helimagnetic imagery flown in 2001, subsequent to the main phase of Sn-W exploration activity. Effectively 12 km of untested magnetic anomalies and a considerable number of skarns remain untested.

Historic prospecting and mining activity also indicates the presence of cassiterite associated with quartz-tourmaline vein zones within the margin of the Meredith Granite which has escaped significant modern exploration. More speculatively, the pyrrhotite-bearing skarns at Mt Lindsay and Webs Creek are also prospective for Avebury-type Ni mineralisation, with Ni remobilised from the adjacent Wilson River ultramafic complex. There may be potential for a substantial magnetite resource in various skarns.