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The last work done on T4 was to commence opening up the end of the old adit. Geological observations in the DDD suggest the main adit tunnel needs extension as it could be an important source of future azurite. We extended the old adit 2 metres during our exploration program in 2008.

We have three more trips into the mine scheduled and hope to update readers about how things go.

We are happy to comment on suggestions or questions from readers concerning the MCM Project. Thank you for your support and encouragement. This is not easy stuff. The senior years of Maureen and I and the logistics of maintaining these type of projects are quite testing. But I guess, where else would you be?

Cheers
Dehne and Maureen McLaughlin June 2016.

[Tobi]

An impressive report of the mining work Down Under, I really enjoyed it though I'm not even a friend of the azurite "suns".

Really cool!
Tobi

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From Dehne McLaughlin, the Second Newsletter June to July 2016. The Malbunka Copper Mine Project (MCM Project).

Enjoy!

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This newsletter is the second about mining undertaken in 2016 in the desert of Central Australia at the Malbunka Copper Mine by Dehne and Maureen McLaughlin and supporters for the recovery of discoidal azurite specimens on white kaolinite matrix described as “azurite suns”. This newsletter covers the last three mining periods at the mine based on our schedule of 6 nights mine work and 4 nights in Alice Springs. Dehne took several days off during the last field break between trips 6 and 7 to support the Creation Ministries outreach at the Alice Springs annual show.

Craig Bosel had gone back to Perth and our new Hard Worker from Western Australia, Seb (Dr Sebastian Staude, Geologist and Field Collector), turned up in Alice Springs after a 2 day gravel road drive in his 4WD across the desert via the Great Central Road that runs 1126 km from Laverton in Western Australia to Yulara near Ayers Rock in the Northern Territory. Now this is one keen guy.

You may remember how proud we were of our improved camp set up. We arrived back at the mine on 12th June 2016 to find every tent ransacked, several of them slashed, every pillow, sheet, sleeping bag and blanket stolen, food stolen or destroyed etc etc and a pile of important kitchen stuff piled up ready for loading in their car on top of our bedding and multiple other items.

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The thieves, an Aboriginal group in a white 4WD station wagon, were interrupted in their looting by a passing Government Geological survey vehicle.

Without a bag of old blankets from my late mother that we had fortuitously stored underground we would not have been able to deal with the cold weather that week. Returning to Alice would had been the only option. There are no time extensions in the Project schedule as the Bass Strait ferry bookings we have for our two vehicles are set in stone. Its one of the crazy things about transport to Tasmania. Maybe its done to keep us on the island and visitors away.

So after camp patch up, we got on with the core business. Seb had bought his own 4WD in and swag so he was good to go. Our first task was to finish a 0.5 metre cut across a 2.5 metre width into the Adit face that Craig and I had started preparing at the end of trip 4. There was 4 years of wet weather waste rock dumping and 30 year old fossickers rubble that needed removing to advance the face.

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Reopening of the Adit face, now called the Adit Drive (AD) was an important step in the Project. It was preceded by a reinterpretation of the geology of the azurite deposit, triggered by depletion in azurite mineralisation in the Up Dip Drive (UDD) in L1 and L2. The first four weeks work in 2016 that included 2 metres of driving in the DDD had shown that azurite richness was excellent specimen wise and constant and that the kaolinite host lens with its interbedded sandstone and quartzite layers was not tapering as originally expected but was actually thickening. This was proven by hammer drilling into the floor to find the depth of kaolinite as described in our first newsletter. As the boundary between the DDD direction and the AD is marked by a 0.5 down throw fault, it made sense to open the old Adit Drive centred on the anticlinal cusp and start pushing an exploration tunnel to test if the azurite mineralisation persisted to an acceptable level of quality and quantity. Seb added to this by pointing out on Trip 5 that the brecciated copper oxide rock he had noted in a quarry behind our mine hill suggested that the copper mineralising system could be continous from our waste rock dump area exposure of the same brecciated material documented in previous newsletters 120 metres to the east to the quarry. Google sat photos suggested a linear ~ E-W trend is possible. We had been deterred from re-entering the Adit Drive as past exploration indicated unfavourable groundwater impact on the azurite and a tapering of the kaolinite lens. Could we punch through this?

An important feature of the Adit Drive (AD) cuts was the exposing of the kaolinite and quartzite injectite at the base of the drive, the same layer encountered in the down faulted DDD as seen in Newsletter 1 Photo 5. And this injectite 1.5 and 2 metres into the tunnel was becoming enriched not just in atacamite but chrysocolla and azurite. You may say “well so what!”. Well add this to the large azurite disks found in sandstone/clay contact in this area we have both a serious large scale injectite being encountered not identified previously and an increase in copper mineralisation in the whole vertical face of the drive.

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Once Seb and I completed the 0.5 metre cut in the Adit Drive and carried out collecting, we moved to the DDD, our 2016 bread and butter area, and completed over the remainder of the week a 0.5 metre cut. Collecting the L1 to L3 layers took 3.5 days.

So the three of us mined away for 6 days during Trip 5. Seb was happy with his rocks he took home. He had never seen so much azurite in one place. Maureen and I enjoyed his company and humour and admire this young man’s dedication to field collecting. Yes, Germans do have a sense of humour and we hope to stay in contact when he returns to Germany.

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Trip 6 was a big change in personnel. Maureens son flew into to Alice Springs, a veteran of the early mining efforts and fresh from building bushwalking tracks in the Hobart area and playing 6 games of basketball a week as well as Ray and Cynthia Grant arrived from Arizona via Western Australia in their 4WD. Ray and Cynthia visited the mine in 2012 and Dehne and Ray published a detailed article on the mineralisation in Rocks and Minerals in the Nov-Dec issue in 2012.

So we ventured out again with 3 vehicles in convoy after a 3 day break in Alice and recommenced mining our last cut for 2016 into the DDD. While Tim, Maureen and Dehne got stuck into the mining face with big hammers, Ray and Cynthia set up camp using their own camping system as they had been out of remote area camping practice for 4 years. We had a tent for them as a second worker had dropped out but their giant blow up bed needed their own tent. Beware the giant blow up beds as they love taking up room and then deflating at the wrong time. Stretchers are recommended.

So we had 5 people at once for a week in the wild yet to be increased by two for a short period from the Northern Territory Government (NTG). The NTG is remapping the local 1:250,000 geological map sheet last published by the BMR in 1964. Some of the survey team, Nigel and Jake, visited during T6. We showed them the underground workings, provided a copy of our 2012 Rocks and Minerals mine article and requested any feedback on information they may collect on the local and regional plunge of the anticline we were mining in.

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Information on our mine anticline plunge could be useful in firming up reserve estimates beyond year 5. The sedimentary lens containing the kaolinite/azurite association is not exposed on the opposite side of the hill to the mine and one interpretation is that, instead of tapering out as previously thought, it could continue subsurface below a quarry containing brecciated rock with copper oxides. The possibility of an intersection of brecciated and mineralised rock from a near vertical fracture zone with the azurite containing clay lens is quite possible and exciting.

The 2.5 metres of new driving down the Adit Drive in 2016 has demonstrated an increase in copper mineralisation volume and distribution in the total 2 metre vertical face. Coupled with the azurite mineralisation in the DDD encountered in 2016 which parallels the Adit Drive, the persistent mineralisation in the anticlinal down dip cusp and near anticlinal limbs gives cause to be optimistic over the future of the Project. In these favourable circumstances, marketing becomes the limiting factor on financial income, not production.

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Photos 6, 7 above and 8 and 9 below are examples of Adit Drive mineralisation.

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You may remember in the last newsletter we complained about the storm water entering our DDD workings. The water was supposed to go down to the Adit Drive. Not any more. We now divert the water to two sump areas in the DDD having created a new additional large sump in the DDD area to ensure both faces can be accessed despite vagaries in the desert weather.

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The CLC planned to bring out a group of traditional Aboriginal owners (TAOs) to the mine during T6 and has happened each year over the last 4 years, but it never came off. There was a group of 4 Aranda men related to the TAOs (good guys-Williams) who dropped by out of the blue before sundown one day who said hi, took some phone photos and then took off into the sunset. So we had a sought of an inspection.

We are confident we have minimised the risk of bad people stealing gear left at the mine and look forward to mining in 2017. We hope portaloos are not in demand by the locals.

Which brings us to the matter of mine workers and visitors for 2017. We seek some healthy mine workers for 2017 over June and July who can push rock in a wheel barrow 7 hours a day for at least two days in our 6 day mine working week. Other jobs such as shovelling, jack hammering and undercutting with some collecting are not quite as taxing. Even us seniors do that. This is paid work which if you are a collector has a blue lining to the job. Anyone who wishes to casually visit the mine would need to have their own 4WD transport and be capable of looking after their own camping and catering needs, including water and fuel. We would apply for all required Aboriginal land travel permits. We treat everyone nice but the workers (max of 2), come in with us in our two vehicles, use the accommodation tents and are catered for by us. Due to the remoteness and difficult access to the mine everyone travels in together. Short term visitors can leave the mine on their own when it suits them. Anyone interested in being involved in this unique Project please let us know by email and we can provide you with a draft field timetable which we harden up in January 2017 just before Tucson.

Cheers
Dehne and Maureen McLaughlin July 2016.