The Nationals 150 Million Dollar Commitment to WASM

WA Nationals Brendon Grylls has committed 150 million to WASM, bringing WASM clearly into the the political campaign.

The cash is to come from the mining tax revenues the Nationals proposed last year.

A large part of the extra funding is to go towards a proposed new Pilbara school in partnership with the WA School of Mines Curtin University

45 millions is to go towards the new test mine and processing stie for the school, 5 million on executive education programs for WASM, 50 million towards the new campus in the Pilbarra.

On top of all that another 50 million is to go towards funding research and scholarships. Co-funding is expected from Industry.

The initiatives and proposals were the brain child of the WA School of Mines Alumni, led by the alumni’s President Bill Beament, and Vice President Raleigh Finlayson, and the Vice Chancellor Professor Debbie Terry, Jane Coole and her team at Curtin University.

This is a win-win situation for not just the WA School of Mines but for the wider community within the goldfields and pilbara regions and in particular for the growth of the industry.

You can read more here:

 

Peter Collins Scholarship awarded to Chris Rutherford

The WASM Alumni is delighted to announce the ‘Peter Collins’ Scholarship, funded by Neometals, has been awarded to Chris Rutherford.

 

The scholarship will fund Chris’s 2017 Honours project.

 

The Local Structural Setting of the Geer, Dam & Rosedale Structures at Gidginbung N.S.W.

 

1.1              Introduction

The Gidginbung Project is named for a former gold mine and nearby town 18 kilometres to the northwest of Temora in the Riverina region of New South Wales. The project is managed by Sandfire Resources from their exploration base at West Wyalong, 55 km to the NNW, with personnel rotating through the regional flight hub at Wagga Wagga, 85 km to the south.

 

The project lies on the southern periphery of the Rain Hill District, a NNW-trending Ordovician intrusive complex with significant known porphyry mineralisation and an association with the Gilmore Fault Zone. Local structures surrounding Gidgingbung – a high sulphidation epithermal gold deposit – attest to significant movement but their ages, movement directions and distances are poorly understood. The project is concerned with the tectonic, structural, and petrological characterisation of this system.

 

The structural context of the system is important with regard to the localisation of mineralisation styles at Gidginbung, the neighbouring Dam porphyry, and surrounding exploration projects. Increased understanding of these structures will assist in exploring the district for further mineralisation.

 

A number of studies are planned under the 2016 ARC Linkage funding for the project “Ore deposits and tectonic evolution of the Lachlan Orogen, SE Australia” led by Dr Sebastian Meffre of the Centre for Ore Deposit Research, University of Tasmania CODES. The ARC Linkage project is aimed at understanding the emplacement levels of known mineralisation. These include SWIR spectra of all drilling, sulphur isotope geochemistry, age dating, and green rock studies on chlorite and epidote. These studies will require a structural context and this study is intended to assist in the analysis.

 

1.2              Statement of Purpose

The purpose of this study is to define the local setting of the Geer, Dam and Rosedale structures at Gidginbung to enable its integration into regional structural and geochemical models. This will be achieved by structural investigation of extant drill core, in-pit, and local surface expressions, in conjunction with a review of previous studies and existing data.

This study will be facilitated by :

  • Compilation of all previous structural studies in the region

·       Compilation of any structural mapping, logging of previous drilling to understand previous work

  • Mapping and structural measurements on any outcropping structures, especially the Gear shear and structures in the Gidginbung pit
  • Compilation and analysis of all previous drill core photography
  • Re-logging of all key structural intersections in drill-holes, with a focus on those related to the Dam structure and the Gear Shear

 

A number of studies are planned by the ARC Linkage group during this study with this work based at CODES and Chris will co-ordinate in the collection of data and results where applicable. Available data may assist in the understanding of the emplacement levels of the known mineralisation in the vicinity of the Gidginbung and Dam deposits.  These studies include SWIR spectra of all drilling, sulphur isotopes, age dating and green rock studies on chlorite and epidote.  These studies will should be integrated into the structural framework.

 

WASMA Awards Silver Medals

The Alumni has awarded the following silver medals to WASM students from each of the disciplines.

Congratulations to:

Andrew Borthwick-Clarke
BEng (Mining Engineering)
First Class Honours

Janelle McPhee
BSc (Extractive Metallurgy)
VC list 2016

Maddison Fairburn BSc (App. Geol.) (Geophysics)
First Class Honours

Lewis Walsh
BSurv
First Class Honours SPATIAL SCIENCES

Christian Proud
Graduating with BSc
First Class Honours EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICS