OREAS 2Pd

OREAS 2Pd was prepared from a blend of oxidised ore and barren material taken from the flanks of a mineralised shear zone within Ordovician flysch sediments in the Blackwood area of central Victoria. The sedimentary succession hosting the shear zone consists predominantly of medium-grained greywackes together with subordinate interbedded siltstone and slate. Hydrothermal alteration in the vicinity of the mineralisation is indicated by the development of phyllite. The shear zone, in which gold grades attain a maximum, is manifested by foliated sericitic and chloritic fault gouge and goethitic quartz veins.
Although no ore mineragraphy or scanning electron microscopy has been undertaken to determine the nature of occurrence of the gold, the very homogeneous distribution on a mesoscopic scale and uniform concentration gradient away from the ore zone suggests the gold is extremely fine-grained and evenly disseminated. Limited percussion drilling indicates that sulphides are rare to absent at depth in the shear zone.