Goschen Central

The Goschen Central Project consists of EL5278 and is located approximately 50 km south-southwest of Swan Hill in northern Victoria. In the 1980s, drilling conducted by CRA Exploration Pty Ltd (CRAE) identified HM mineralisation at the Goschen Central Project . Since then, modest drilling have been completed within the Goschen Central Project area.

The Goschen Central Project includes both fine-grained sheet-style HM mineralisation, interpreted to have been deposited in an off-shore environment. Fine-grained, off-shore HM deposits in the Murray Basin are often referred to as WIM-style deposits.

Previous work on the Goschen Central Project was undertaken by CRAE in late 1980s and early 1990s when WIM-style deposits were considered attractive exploration targets within the Murray Basin. Early drilling was widely spaced (1,000 m to 2,000 m) to effectively identify high-grade, coarse-grained (>90 µm) strands that often overly the deeper “offshore” style WIM-style deposits. CRAE carried out extensive exploration for HM in the Goschen Central Project area in 1998.

CRAE defined a large lobate WIM-style HM deposit within  the south-west quadrant of the then EL4056. CRAE determined the mineralogy of mineral sand concentrates using optical microscopy and grain counting.

Probo Mining Ltd (Probo) reviewed an area similar to EL5278 in 2002 where the average HM thickness was 5.5 m beneath an average overburden depth of 26 m. Zircon grades were estimated to be 20% to 27% with additional rare earth and titanium minerals complementing the mineral suite.