EXPLORATION OF
QUEENSLAND’S
GOLD FIELDS
Q2 Metals Corp is a Canadian mineral exploration company currently advancing exploration of the 86km2 Mia Lithium Project in the James Bay area of Quebec, Canada, as well as two highly-prospective gold projects located in the historic goldfields of Queensland, Australia: the Big Hill Gold Project and the Titan Project which collectively cover 110 square kilometers in the Talgai Goldfields of the broader Warwick-Texas District and host 54 high-grade historical gold mines.
INTRODUCTION
Queensland has a long and rich history of gold mining.
Queensland has been overlooked by modern exploration techniques as explorers left the confines of Australia and went to developing nations all over the world to seek out gold discoveries in exotic locations.
There has been limited exploration for gold in Queensland since the mid 80’s as the the implementation of environmental permitting regulations made overseas exploration more attractive. With the rest of the world caught up with these environmental permitting regulations Queensland’s well established and consistent regulations are making exploration in Queensland attractive again.
TSX-V : QTWO
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ALICIA MILNE | CEO, PRESIDENT & DIRECTOR
Alicia Milne is a legal professional and a specialist in securities and corporate administration of public companies. She is a securities compliance consultant providing services to various public companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange. With over 20 years in the legal profession, Ms. Milne has developed her career as a corporate secretary, compliance officer and corporate consultant, as well as an independent director. Formerly the Corporate Secretary of Pretium Resources Inc., Ms. Milne also serves as an independent director on four publicly listed companies. Ms. Milne is a member of the Governance Professionals of Canada and is a former director of Women in Mining BC.
KEVIN BOTTOMLEY | DIRECTOR
JODY BELLEFLEUR | CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, DIRECTOR
Jody Bellefleur is a CPA, CGA with over 25 years’ experience as a corporate accountant, focussing exclusively on public companies for the last 13 years. Ms. Bellefleur is responsible for all aspects of regulatory financial reporting, including the preparation of quarterly financial statements, management discussion and analysis reports, the coordination of annual audits, and government tax and regulatory reporting. Early in her career, she was the Controller of a private manufacturing company, where she learned valuable skills necessary to run a successful business. Ms.Bellefleur has served as the CFO of Zimtu Capital Corp. (TSXV:ZC) since 2013 and is responsible for the financial reporting of multiple equity holdings of Zimtu Capital Corp., and acts as CFO for many of them. Ms.Bellefleur holds a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.), Accounting from the University of British Columbia.
LEO POWER | DIRECTOR
SIMON COHN | DIRECTOR
JASON MCBRIDE | CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
Mr. McBride has over 10 years of experience in communications for publicly traded and private sector companies, including a major league sports team. Driven by results and relationships, Mr. McBride has managed multi-million-dollar account portfolios, assisted in capital raises resulting in oversubscribed non-brokered financings, and engaged with stakeholders through a diversity of roles. His dynamic skill set has been demonstrated through successful delivery of corporate communications events with international reach, marketing and PR strategy, corporate social responsibility, as well as community impact initiatives.
NEIL MCCALLUM | VP EXPLORATION, DIRECTOR
Mr. McCallum is a professional geologist with over 18 years of experience in North America. He has served as an independent director for several public companies and launched numerous clients along successful paths to discovery and resource definition. He has been involved in the identification and acquisition of early-stage lithium projects for the past 7 years across North America. In 2016, Mr. McCallum identified and staked the Corvette property for then 92 Resources (predecessor to Patriot Battery Metals) as a property to pursue for lithium exploration. Since that time, Patriot has grown to a CAD $900+ million dollar market cap company with one of the top tier lithium pegmatite projects in Canada.
Let me know if that can be added.
MIA LITHIUM PROJECT QUEBEC, CANADA
The Mia Property is comprised of 170 mineral claims, located 62 km East of Wemindji Community in the Eeyou Itschee Territory, James Bay, Quebec. The lithium mineral showings are located approximately 10 kilometres from the nearest highway.
The Property geology is part of the Yasinski Lake area, identified by narrow greenstone belt slivers, belonging to volcanic rocks and related sediment the Yasinski Group and pierced by syn-tectonic tonalite and granodiorite suite. The Property is situated in the western extremity of this geological area, covering various lithologies and favourable structures, known to host spodumene bearing pegmatites. The southern half of the Property covers a northeast limb of the Vieux Comptoir granite and a concordant intrusive body described as a spodumene granite on SIGEOM, the Quebec provincial government’s geomining information system: https://sigeom.mines.gouv.qc.ca/signet/classes/I1108_afchCarteIntr.
Historical work by Main Exploration Company Ltd. in 1959 (GM10200) reported several spodumene-bearing pegmatites on the Property and mapped an 8.3 km trend of discontinuous pegmatite intrusions. SIGEOM lists nine metallic deposits directly on the Mia Lithium property including two for lithium, namely Mia Li-1 and Mia Li-2. Carte 1879 is listed as a spodumene mineral deposit as no assays were recorded for it.
The westernmost mineral showings Mia-Li1 and Mia-Li2 were sampled in 1997 by Quebec government geologists and assays returned grades of 0.47% Li2O and 2.27% Li2O respectively. Numerous pegmatite intrusions have been recorded along the 8.3 km long trend but were never followed up for their lithium potential. The 1959 report also details that the pegmatite dykes are as much as 100 feet (30.5 metres) in width and are commonly zoned, with spodumene crystals described as being as much as 2 feet (0.61 metres) in length.
These supported both alluvial and reef mining, with the Queenslander Mine distinguishing itself as the first lode gold mine in the state of Queensland with a total production of 4.1Koz of gold at an average grade of 50g/t with some early crushings reported up to 4000g/t.
The Big Hill project area is currently defined by:
- shallow historic high grade mine workings
- coincident surface geochemical anomalism and corresponding magnetic responses
- favorable geological domain and structural setting.
The exploration model for the Big Hill project is a high grade, shear hosted, orogenic gold system. This type of lode gold system is associated with continental margin accretionary orogens (oceanic-continental) typically occurring in terranes dominated by turbiditic (meta- sedimentary) rocks and are commonly associated with second- and third-order faults and shear zones resulting in moderately to steeply plunging, tabular to pipe-like orebodies.
Production records from historical mining activities show the vein system has the capacity to host significant high-grade mineralisation along with complex stranded structural architectures capable of creating large mineralised shoots. The vein systems remain open at depth below the historical workings as well as along strike and remain untested by drilling.
The historic mines of Big Hill and Queenslander are the primary focus of follow-up exploratory work based on their historic production history, favorable geological and structural settings and their location within the granted mining lease ML50287 which is part of EPM18255.
Current exploration of Big Hill Mine, Queensland. Click to enlarge
Discovered in 1863 and mined into the mid 1900’s the gold system on the Big Hill property was targeted in several locations with historical workings. The historic reports, although incomplete show significant grades and ounces produced.
Big Hill
1865 to 1939 producing 6,791 Oz from 6,758 Tons. With the highest grade crushings of 12t @ 7.5 Oz/t (232g/t).
Queenslander:
1863 to 1938 with records after 1904 of 2,121 Oz from 540 Tons. Production pre 1887 unreported with the exception of the highest grade mined from the 50ft level at 444 Oz/t (13,764 g/t).
Monte Cristo
1864 to 1933 1,294 Oz from 271.5t crushed Reports indicate that a reasonable amount of material may have been hand picked.
Map of historic mines. Click to enlarge.
► Gold was first discovered in the Warwick area in 1864 (Ball 1903; Waring 1981). An Aboriginal stockman found nuggets in a dry creek bed just below the site of the present-day Queenslander mine workings. In the rush that followed the Queenslander Reef was quickly found, and work commenced on the first lode gold mine in the colony of Queensland.
► The small alluvial field which led to the initial discovery was soon worked out and mining activity became concentrated on the rich quartz reefs of the Talgai Goldfield such as Queenslander, Big Hill and Monte Cristo Reefs. Encouraged by these successes, further prospecting led to the development of the Sultan and Taylor, Australian and St Patrick mines.
► Prospecting in the district continued in earnest until the end of the 19th Century, by which time nearly all the 60+ shows in the broader Warwick-Texas district had been discovered. There were additional discoveries in the adjacent goldfields of Canal Creek, Thanes Creek, Leyburn, Palgrave, Pikedale, Lucky Valley and MacDonald Goldfields (see Map WT ) (Donchak et al 2007).
► From 1905 the miners moved onto new gold discoveries at Gympie, 170km north of Brisbane and activity within the Warwick-Texas district goldfields decreased.
► In 1930, government assistance became available for mining operations in the Warwick-Texas district in the hope of providing worthwhile employment during the depression, however operations ceased by 1941.
2 hours drive SW of the capital City of Brisbane on Australia’s east coast. Click to enlarge.
Map WT – Goldfields of Warrick Texas District. Click to enlarge.
NI 43-101
NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Big Hill Au Project, SE Queensland, Australia.
► The structural setting and mineralisation characteristics of shear-hosted gold deposits in the Big Hill Project area exhibit similar characteristics to other orogenic shear-hosted deposits and the project area holds the potential for discovery of extensions to the known deposits along with additional mineralised zones.
► Initial modelling, geochemical and geophysical surveys indicate potential for extensions to these deposits along with additional vein systems outside the known deposits.
► The principal mineralisation style associated with the Project is structurally controlled shear-hosted orogenic gold. This type of lode gold system is associated with continental margin accretionary (oceanic-continental) orogens typically occurring in terranes dominated by turbiditic (meta-sedimentary) rocks and are commonly associated with second- and third-order faults and shear zones (Groves et al 1998; Vearncombe et al 1989).
► Figure 2 below shows the tectonic setting of gold rich epigenetic mineral deposits with the inset illustrating schematic representation of structural setting and depth of formation for orogenic gold deposits (Groves et al 1998).
Southern New England Orogen : main accretionary units & structural trends (Fergusson 2019)(supplied by MPX). Click to enlarge
Figure 2 Tectonic Setting of Gold-Rich Epigenetic Mineral Deposits (Groves et al 1998). Click to enlarge
Mineralisation within EPM18255 comprises typically steeply dipping, E-W striking quartz veins within a NW trending structural grain. Vein thicknesses are typically greater than 1m but can thicken in places to up to 5m, such as that intersected in the Big Hill underground workings.
Strike length of the vein systems can range up to ~150m, based on the extent of historical workings at the Queenslander and Big Hill mines. Quartz vein textures include massive, laminated, brecciated and anastomosing veins.
Flat, west plunging high grades zones reported from the historical mining are potentially related to intersections of vein sets.
Big Hill Project Ground Magnetic RTP first vertical derivative image. Click to enlarge
The Magnetics shows the mafic volcanic units mapped at surface appearing to correlate with some of the magnetic high responses. This is consistent with petrological observations of Waring (1981) which described some the mafic volcanic units as containing primary magnetite. A broad magnetic low in the northwest of the survey area correlates with a magnetic low on the regional scale magnetics and is potentially associated with an intrusive body.
Big Hill Project Local Geology. Click to enlarge
Big Hill Prospect Geology. Click to enlarge
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Queensland has a rich history of gold discovery and production dating back to the golds rushes in the late 1800’s to the modern production facilities operational today. Queensland has many prolific gold provinces in the state that is almost 3 times the size of Texas and 8 times the size of Victoria.
Map of Queensland, Recently discovered goldfields, 1874. Compiled from the latest official government surveys. Gibbs, Shallard and Co Printers, Sydney. Collection of the National Library of Australia. Click to enlarge
In the mid-1850s, when Queensland was still part of New South Wales, the colonial government encouraged the search for gold on the northern frontier. It hoped that a discovery would attract European settlers from the south. Captain Maurice O’Connell, the leader of a government settlement at Gladstone, reported “very promising prospects of gold” in 1857. But it was a discovery made a year later that sparked the first Queensland gold rush. A prospector named Chapple found gold at Canoona, near Rockhampton, in 1858. By the end of the year, 15,000 hopeful miners had arrived.
The first major gold discovery in Queensland came almost a decade later. In 1867 James Nash discovered gold in the small agricultural town of Gympie, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of Brisbane. This was the start of the Gympie gold rush. Within months of Nash’s discovery, 25,000 people came to the area to try their luck. The influx of miners gave a much-needed boost to the struggling economy of the young colony.
Late 1871 an indigenous boy, Jupiter Mosman, found gold in a stream near what became Charters Towers. The town of Charters Towers was founded at the site, and miners flooded in. The population reached a peak of 30,000 during the gold rush of the 1870s and ’80s.
Farther north, a find along the Palmer River pulled miners to the frontier in the mid-1870s. Then, in 1882, Edwin and Thomas Morgan made one of Australia’s most important gold strikes at a site known as Ironstone Mountain, near Rockhampton. The brothers renamed the mountain Mount Morgan after themselves. Mount Morgan, the so-called “mountain of gold,” would become one of Queensland’s richest and longest surviving gold mines. Mt Morgan was operationa until the eraly 1980’s.
Known modern deposits in northeast Queensland include Kidston (5 Moz Au), Ravenswood/Mount Wright (5.8 Moz Au), Mount Leyshon (3.8 Moz Au), Red Dome/Mungana (3.2 Moz Au) and Mt Morgan (17 Moz Au and 239 Kt Cu). The deposits occur in a wide range of geological settings including porphyries, breccias, skarns and veins.
Warwick Texas Gold Fields
Gold was first discovered in the Warwick area in 1864. An indigenous stockman found nuggets in a dry creek bed just below the site of the present-day Queenslander mine workings. In the rush that followed the Queenslander Reef was quickly found, and work commenced on the first lode gold mine in the colony of Queensland.
The small alluvial field which led to the initial discovery was soon worked out and mining activity became concentrated on the rich quartz reefs of the Talgai Goldfield such as Queenslander, Big Hill and Monte Cristo Reefs. Encouraged by these successes, further prospecting led to the development of the Sultan and Taylor, Australian and St Patrick mines.
Prospecting in the district continued in earnest until the end of the 19th Century, by which time 60 discoveries were made in the broader Warwick-Texas district. There were additional discoveries in the adjacent goldfields of Canal Creek, Thanes Creek, Leyburn, Palgrave, Pikedale, Lucky Valley and MacDonald Goldfields. From the late 1800’s many miners moved onto new gold discoveries at Gympie, 170km north of Brisbane and activity within the Warwick-Texas district goldfields decreased. In 1930, government assistance became available for mining operations in the Warwick-Texas district in the hope of providing worthwhile employment during the depression, however operations ceased by 1941.
Gympie Gold Fields
The Gympie goldfields discovery was late in 1867 when James Nash discovered gold at Gympie
The very rich and productive area, which covered only an area of 120 square miles (310 km2), was officially declared the Gympie Goldfield in 1868. The mining shanty town which had quickly grown with tents, many small stores and liquor outlets, and was known as “Nashville”, was renamed Gympie after the Gympie Creek named from the indigenous name for a local stinging tree. Within months there were 25,000 people on the goldfield.
Topographical map of Gympie and environs, Queensland Geological Survey, 1909. Illustrating report on Gympie Goldfield by B Dunstan, Government Geologist, sheets 9 and 10. Collection of the State Library of New South Wales. Click to enlarge
Charters Towers
A significant Queensland goldfield was discovered at Charters Towers on 24 December 1871 by a young 12-year-old indigenous stockman, Jupiter Mosman, and soon moved attention to this area. The goldrush which followed is arguably the most important in Queensland’s gold-mining history. This district had very little alluvial gold and was much more difficult hard rock mining. Thousands of men rushed to the field, and a public battery was set up to crush the quartz ore in 1872. The town of Charters Towers grew to become the second largest town in Queensland during the late 1880s with a population of about 30,000
The Charters Towers gold field produced over 200 tonnes (6.6 million troy ounces) of gold from 1871–1917. The gold is concentrated into veins and was Australia’s richest major field with an average grade of 34 grams per tonne. The grade was almost double that of Victorian mines and almost 75% higher than the grades of Western Australian (Kalgoorlie) gold fields of that time.
Between 1872 and 1899 Charters Towers was booming and even had its own stock exchange. The Great Northern railway between Charters Towers and the coastal port of Townsville was completed in December 1882. During this period, the population was approximately 30,000, making Charters Towers Queensland’s largest city outside of Brisbane.
By 1917 gold mining became uneconomic. During World War I labour was hard to find, and as the mines drove deeper, ventilation and water problems arose. This production decline was similar across Australian gold mines, with rising costs and a fixed gold price eroding profitability. The town entered a long period of relative stagnation and little further development has occurred since.
Illustration from a prospectus of the Brilliant Gold Mining Company, Charters Towers, 1899. Collection of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Click to enlarge
Mount Morgan
Mount Morgan Mine was a copper, gold and silver mine in Queensland, Australia. Mining began at Mount Morgan in 1882 and continued for almost 100 years until 1981. Over its lifespan, the mine yielded approximately 262 metric tons (258 long tons; 289 short tons) of gold, 37 metric tons (36 long tons; 41 short tons) of silver and 387,000 metric tons (381,000 long tons; 427,000 short tons) of copper. The mine was once the largest gold mine in the world.
From 1982 to 1990, Mount Morgan Limited began processing tailings of its previous operations at the Mount Morgan mine site. In parallel, Mount Morgan mine facilities were used to process materials from other Peko Wallsend operations. At the end of both such operations in 1990, the Queensland Government began negotiating with Mount Morgan Limited regarding terms of closure.
Wealth from the Mount Morgan mine funded Persian oil exploration, establishing the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which became BP in 1954. Wealth from the Mount Morgan mine was also bequeathed in 1912 to establish the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.
Mount Morgan tailings are being considered for reprocessing yet again as the price of gold escalates making the tailings grade appealing.
Workers and their families, Mount Craven Mines Eidsvold, 1889. Collection of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Click to enlarge
Mount Isa
The Mt Isa is of the world’s most significant gold and base metal producing districts, host to many world class copper-gold and lead-zinc-silver ore bodies. The region is also prospective for gold, phosphate, cobalt, rare-earths, molybdenum and rhenium mineralisation and has a number of significant operating mines and new projects in development. There is well established mining, transport and processing infrastructure in close proximity to the regional centres of Mt Isa and Cloncurry.
It came into existence because of the vast mineral deposits found in the area. Mount Isa Mines (MIM) is one of the most productive single mines in world history, based on combined production of lead, silver, copper and zinc.
A lone prospector, John Campbell Miles, stumbled upon one of the world’s richest deposits of copper, silver and zinc during his 1923 expedition into the Northern Territory. When Miles inspected the yellow-black rocks in a nearby outcrop, they reminded him of the ore found in the Broken Hill mine that he had once worked at. Upon inspection these rocks were weighty and heavily mineralised. A sample sent away to the assayer in Cloncurry confirmed their value. Miles and four farmers staked out the first claims in the area. Taken with friend’s stories of the Mount Ida gold mines in Western Australia, Miles decided upon Mount Isa as the name for his new claim.
With an estimated urban population of 18,588 as of June 2018, Mount Isa continues to be the administrative, commercial and industrial centre for the state’s vast north-western region. Population has decreased moderately at an average annual rate of -2.66% year-on-year over the five years to 2018. Although situated in an arid area, the artificial Lake Moondarra 19 kilometres (12 mi) north of the city on the Leichhardt River provides both drinking water and an area for watersports, birdwatching and recreation.
Chillagoe – Palmer River
In 1872 gold was discovered by James Mulligan on the Palmer River inland from Cooktown. This turned out to contain Queensland’s richest alluvial deposits. After the rush began in 1873 over 20,000 people made their way to the remote goldfield. This was one of the largest rushes experienced in Queensland. The rush lasted approximately 3 years and attracted a large number of Chinese. In 1877 over 18,000 of the residents were Chinese miners.
The population varied with the scale of mining and the peak year was probably 1917, with about 10,000 people, 13 hotels, two newspapers and a hospital. During the 1930s and continuing until 1943, subsidised railway freight rates transported ore to the Chillagoe smelters, but lack of manpower during wartime and competition from Mount Isa forced their closure. Small amounts of mining for tin, molybdenum, wolfram and fluorspar continued, and Chillagoe marble continues to be quarried.