GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT. THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE OF CLONCURRY

With Gold unseemingly stoppable price rising and the rapid demise of cryptocurrencies, decline in some currencies that were thought to be indestructible and the rise of prominence of China and their financial dominance of the world, I decided to take a look at the only currency that has weathered all times and where the next big find will be.

Once upon a time a coin actually had a value. The Gold Coin had the exact amount of gold that reflected the gold price. The USA twenty Dollar Gold Coin had twenty dollars of Gold in it. The Sovereign had 8.8grams of Gold and the silver coins reflected their silver content and the penny the copper value. So what went wrong. Platinum used to be 50% more expensive than Gold, now Gold is 50% more expensive than Platinum.

The major mining companies are all now exploring for Gold, why because each day it becomes more rare. Australia started mining gold in 1890 and had peak production in 1903 of a total of 50 tonnes mined by hand in Australia. No open cuts, all underground and alluvial mining only. No excavators, no loaders, no dump trucks, they weren't even invented in those days. Now with all the equipment available to man Australia has never produced more gold than 313 tonnes in a single year. That year was 1997. In 2009 it dropped to 142 tonnes and in 2017 had only risen to 287 tonnes. With all the technical data and machinery and geotechnical and geophysical apparatuses available today, we are slowly reducing the gold flow from the ground.

THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE  (CLONCURRY OUTBACK QLD?)

I did an exhaustive research on where the best next big Gold find in Australia might be and found that the most prosperous ground for Gold in Australia and of all places Queensland was not where everyone assumed, no not Western Australia. Queensland and if you asked someone where would the biggest gold find be in Queensland, most pundits would have said, Charters Towers, Mt Morgan, Croydon or Gympie. Those four are the largest producers of Gold in Queensland. No! its none of those,  its actually Cloncurry which is about 100klms East of Mt Isa. Cloncurry and Mt Isa, which hosts the largest known Copper province in Australia and now hosting some of Australia's best know explorers searching for Gold. The hunt is on. The area that BHP believed was the host to a massive Gold find was named, the "Golden Triangle"

Whilst looking for Copper in early 90's, a geologist from Mt Isa Mines Ltd stumbled across a little outcrop of quartz and sampled it. Within 2 years, it was a pure Gold Mine, "no copper" and located to the West of the Golden Triangle. It started production in 1995 and produced over half a million ounces of Gold from only 750,000 tonnes of quartz ore averaging 22.6g/t Gold.

BHP in the 1980's and early 1990's had the largest team of geologists assembled, all located in a number of bush camps in the Cloncurry mineral field. Its crazy I thought, my research shows that most Gold Mines that operated in the early 1900's to mid 1900's in the Golden Triangle averaged between 20 and 50g/t Gold, yet everyone was still looking for Copper.

The greatest intensity of manpower was assembled with geologists, geophysicists, cooks, drivers, motor vehicles,  in the bush 50 klms SE of Cloncurry in the Golden Triangle, South of the Townsville/Cloncurry highway.  I have researched and have found the area that they were sure they would find a treasure of Gold. It was nicknamed the Golden Triangle.  One area where BHP were certain to find Gold was within the Triangle in 1985, at a prospect known as Mt Freda about 50klms South East from Cloncurry township as the crows flys.

It was this area and an area around 10klms arc to the North, the North East and the North West that they believed would surrender the treasures. Several diamond core holes were drilled and several camps set up within the confines of their highly prospective area.

Geophysics of all types at the time were used including geochemical ground  and air surveys, assaying thousands and thousands of gridded holes tested. In the end it seems, the weather either boiling hot or cold and rainy season took its toll and they left without finding the Big One. They did say in their mining day journal submitted to the Cloncurry Mining Wardens office, "its out there and one day someone will find it, its just a matter of time.

In the late 1990's a new group listed ASX, Matrix Metals carried out a massive geological exploration evaluation over the area known as the "Golden Triangle", after reading of the BHP failed attempt to find the source, thought to be a massive IOCG hidden somewhere in the area. BHP also carried out some drilling in a JV with the owner of Mt Freda (now owned by AMG) in 1985 and put some holes down, oddly they were drilling East as if the Mt Freda orebody had suddenly turned south. Maybe they thought the Mt Freda orebody would lead them to the IOCG they had fought so hard to find.  The Company carried out geochemical grid survey over the ground to the NW of the Mt Freda Gold Project that was producing gold till the early 1990's until the gold failed to make gold operations profitable and went into shutdown mode.

The results from a massive and expensive, geochemical LAG Survey by Matrix Metals Ltd (which I have never heard of before) found that the area within the Golden Triangle, had the highest concentration of Gold in the area of survey than any other region in Queensland almost doubling the next best concentration of Gold.   However, that company fell to the ground after the Copper price fell, as well as their ambitious move to Gold and the area became available once again.  The Golden Triangle still held its secret and still till this day the IOCG everyone has been searching for still eludes them all. There is no question with all the concentrations of minerals, Co, U, Au, Cu As and so on in the Mt Freda and Golden Triangle area it must be just waiting for a drill hole to say, Hi here I am.

My latest research has tracked down the latest custodians of the Golden Triangle, where the holy grail of gold treasure is waiting to be discovered?, well so say physics. (no NOT psychics, physics!)   A little relatively unknown company namely Ausmex Mining Group who go by the code of AMG on the ASX, not Mercedes AMG but still AMG. Its AMG's turn to take up the reins of the finding of the hidden Golden Treasure of the Golden Triangle of the outback.  My research in the Mines Dept of Brisbane  shows they are the current custodians of 90% of the Golden Triangle. A click on their ASX Code reveals what they have been doing and the results they have been getting, in their conquest for fame and fortune. I'm no geologist, but I can read and understand what Grams per tonne for Gold, means and from looking at their updates on the their exploration, I feel layers of intrigue may be being uncovered.   Seems they have upped the ante on previous explorers.  Probably, Ausmex, been using all the hard work data provided by the BHP's and others and doing homework, provided by the rest of the treasure hunters.  I know little of Ausmex, at this stage other than what I found on the web. I'm not normally a metals guy, but couldn't help but wonder who now has the baton now for the unknown and hidden Gold treasure of Cloncurry, known as the Golden Triangle.  Is it real?  I have a feeling in my water YES. Time will Tell.