Summary:
Norton Operation comprises Paddington Operation Centre and Binduli Operation Centre.
Paddington Gold Operations comprises of the following key deposits: Enterprise, Janet Ivy, Bullant, Homestead, Tuart and Federal.
Federal open cut and underground
The Federal deposit is located 12km northeast of the Paddington Mill, situated within the Golden Cities camp area. Mineralisation is hosted by granitoid lithologies and is controlled by a northwest trending fault zone. Gold mineralisation is associated with pyritic vein quartz, with vein density the dominant control on gold grade. Several plunging high-grade lodes within the broader lower-grade mineralised envelope are interpreted, and future work will review the potential to extend these lodes.
Enterprise open pit and underground
The Enterprise deposit is hosted by units of the Enterprise dolerite sill and comprises a breccia cap with underlying quartz stock work. Eight layers have been identified within the sill and identified as Unit 1 to Unit 8 (from depth to surface). Gold mineralisation is characterised by multiple fault orientations, with the major ore envelope controlled by the intersection of a series of steep-trending faults. High-grade gold zones are concentrated in steeply plunging linear zones that coincide with these brittle-ductile faults, and large areas of relatively lower grade mineralisation fill the gaps between the faults.
Homestead Underground
The Homestead orebody comprises several mineralised high-grade veins (VN01, VN02 and VN03), within the north-trending, steep, west-dipping Homestead shear zone. A series of oblique east-west to northwest trending veins, the Phantom and small 140 veins respectively, occur immediately east of the Homestead shear zone. At the northern limit of VN01, the Homestead shear zone is cut by a northeast trending fault structure which laterally offsets the main mineralised zone some 40m to the west of VN01, which is referred to as VN03. Two areas have been drill tested during the period, namely depth extensions of the Black Flag West Vein and a newly defined mineralised vein now called the Henning Vein. The Henning Vein is a new discovery located in the footwall of the northwest trending, northeast dipping Black Flag West Vein. Orientation of the new vein is interpreted to be north-south trending and steep east dipping. The Henning Vein is characterised by massive to laminated vein quartz with a pyrite/pyrrhotite/galena/sphalerite sulphide assemblage, similar to other mineralised veins in the area. The vein averages approximately 1m to 2m in true width; mineralisation has been intersected over a strike extent of 50–100m, and a dip extent of up to 150m.
Tuart Open Cut and Underground Prospect
The Tuart Prospect is located within the Mt Pleasant mine camp area, adjacent to the currently operating Homestead underground mine and the previously mined Green Gum open cut mine. The Tuart deposit comprises a series of high-grade quartz-carbonate-sulphide brecciated or laminated veins hosted within mafic volcanics. Supergene oxide mineralisation is developed in the regolith immediately above and/or adjacent to the primary veins. Mineralisation covers a broad area located to the northwest of the Homestead underground mine, and immediately west of the historically mined Quarters open pit and underground mine.
Bullant underground
The Bullant Project is located 40km west of the Paddington Mill and was acquired from KMC during 2013. The underground mine is situated along the Zuleika Shear Zone, a highly prospective regional north-northwest trending structure. The Shear Zone is a broad ductile to brittle structural corridor contained within a mafic unit in the mine area. The Shear Zone dips sub-vertically to steep east dipping. Mineralisation occurs in up to four lodes (labelled the Main, East, West and Cross lodes) and is associated with biotite-silica-pyrite altered basalt and minor local quartz veining. Both the Main and East lodes remain open at depth and in various other positions around previously mined areas.
Binduli Operations comprises of the Binduli North and Binduli South districts.
Binduli North
The Binduli North Operation (Fort William, Fort Scott, and Karen Louise deposits) consists of three smaller open pits located along the northwest-southeast-trending Pitman-Fort William thrust fault system, which is associated with gold mineralization. The Janet Ivy deposit is controlled by fan-shaped structures near the Pitman-Fort William thrust fault system. This thrust fault system extends southward to the southern Binduli mining area, running parallel to the Centurion shear zone, which is the primary gold-bearing structure in the region.
The Fort William deposit is primarily composed of weathered layers, sediments (conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, and minor shale), and porphyry. Supergene mineralization is restricted to the saprolite zone, characterized by intense hematite alteration with minor pyrite. Primary gold mineralisation occurs in veins within sediments and porphyry, typically associated with pyrite-sericite + hematite alteration.
The Janet Ivy deposit is a broad, strike extensive zone of mineralisation contained within a felsic porphyry intrusive. Mineralisation is controlled by a vein stockwork zone, individual fault-controlled veins, and pervasive wallrock alteration of the porphyry. The Janet Ivy porphyry consists of anhedral quartz and sub-euhedral feldspar phenocrysts within a fine-grained to aphanitic ground mass. Two distinct alteration suites are present within the porphyry:
• The central potassic alteration suite consists of pervasive and halo-bound biotite, magnetite and hematite.
• The sodic alteration suite is present within the alteration halos of quartz veins and within shear zones, characterised by a pale-pink bleached appearance and consists of albite, calcite, ankerite, rutile, pyrite and galena.
Gold mineralisation within the Janet Ivy porphyry is present as both discrete high-grade and broad low-grade zones. High-grade mineralisation, which can include visible gold, is confined to narrow extensional and stringer quartz veins with sodic alteration halos. Broad, low-grade mineralisation is pervasive throughout the potassic alteration zones. The Janet Ivy porphyry is approximately 2.5km long, up to 150m wide and has an unknown depth extent.
Binduli South
The Binduli South District comprises four major deposits (Navajo Chief, Beaver, Centurion, and Ben Hur) and three minor deposits (Apache, Pitman and Walsh).
• Navajo Chief: Positioned at the northwest end of the trend, it is associated with minor brittle-ductile faults and sodium-altered siltstone, with higher gold grades found in the transition zone between the weathered and fresh rock.
• Centurion: Found in the middle of the trend, gold mineralisation occurs in volcanic-sedimentary units as Eastern Contact Mineralization (ECM) and Western Contact Mineralization (WCM). ECM is associated with feldspar-rich felsic porphyries, while WCM is related to altered conglomerates and sandstones.
• Ben Hur: Situated southeast of the trend, within the footwall of the Centurion Fault. Gold mineralisation occurs in porphyry breccias, folded porphyry, and clastic sediments, forming shallow, west-dipping veins in hematite-magnetite-altered feldspar-quartz porphyries.
• Apache, Pitman and Walsh: Located northeast of the NC-BE-CT-BH trend, it is nearly parallel with a northwest strike and has a near-vertical dip.
This district demonstrates diverse geological controls and mineralisation styles, including both primary and supergene gold deposits.