Bendoc (VIC)
Location
Bendoc (EL4799) is located in eastern Victoria on the NSW boarder, 100 km north of Orbost. Combined, these tenements cover a total area of approximately 400 km2. Bendoc is a town of less than 200 residents supported by logging, saw milling and intensive agriculture. The majority of the services are provided by the town of Delegate which is located 5 km north of the Victorian border in NSW.
Figure 1 – Historical Workings Bendoc
Exploration and Project Summary
Historically, this area has been particularly active by both alluvial and primary reef miners. Gold grades recovered from quartz reefs are reported to average 57 g/t gold. Over 40,000 ounces are reported to have been produced from the Bendoc mineral field from numerous workings, see Figure 1.
Figure 2 – Mineralised Zones and Shoots Bendoc
Modern exploration has used a combination of geochemistry and geophysics to identify suitable anomalies for drilling. A substantial drill programme was undertaken by Zephyr Minerals between 1994 to1996 and was designed to test a region of elevated geochemical anomalism and primary vein-hosted historical workings. The drilling returned anomalous results which were interpreted by Zephyr to fall in several mineralized zones or shoots, see Figure 2.
Figure 3 – Mineralised Shoots Bendoc
Dynasty Exploration
Throughout the Bendoc tenements, a total of 252 geochemical samples (both rock chip and sediment samples) were collected. The majority of these samples were taken near existing workings. Peak values are recorded from rock chip sampling recorded in excess of 10g/t gold and ten samples contained grades >1g/t gold. These results from these samples represent significant exploration targets to be followed up by further drilling. Dynasty Metals conducted a drilling campaign around the Victoria Star area comprising four diamond drill holes each of which reached a depth greater than 120 m. Drill hole BB4 recorded numerous significant intercepts with broad scale mineralization from 57.4m to 81.5 m (i.e. 24.1 m) having an average grade of over 2 g/t Au. This zone included 6m @ 4.64g/t Au from 71m and 2m @ 7.19 g/t Au from 79.5m. The drilling confirmed the existence of pervasive mineralisation in shoots which has the potential to be commercially viable, see Figure 3.
Future Exploration
Dynasty’s exploration targeted previously known mineralized areas which had been historically worked. The majority of the tenement remains under explored. Future exploration will employ detailed geophysics and multi-element geochemistry with the aim to generate significant primary targets. Parallel structures identified in regional mapping also represent prospective structural targets.