Sellheim

In more recent times the Sellheim gold project was owned by Maximus Resources. Maximus Resources sold the alluvial gold project, situated in the Drummind Basin, to a private consortium in December 2012. In July 2013 the new owner entered into a farm in agreement with Silver City Minerals Limited to develop the project as a joint venture. The private consortium is looking to recommence mining at the site as early as possible.

Sellheim one of Queenslands Oldest Goldfields

The Sellheim alluvial goldfield is one of Queenslands oldest goldfield as it was discovered in the 1860's and soon became renowned for its prized gold nuggets. Exploratory results to date have shown the low hills surrounding the Sellheim alluvial goldfield to be host to a north east corridor about five kilometres long and up to 500 metres wide that has consistently returned high levels of gold, copper, molybdenum and bismuth. The Sellheim gold project is located in the Charters Towers ñ Ravensworth province that is well known to contain porphyry gold and copper at Mt Leyshon and orogenic gold at Charters Towers.

Exploratory Drilling to Begin at the Sellheim Gold Project in March or April 2014

Silver City Minerals Limited are planning to begin around 2,000 metres of exploratory drilling at the Sellheim Gold Project at the finish of the wet season, at around March or April, 2014. It has been obvious to date that alluvial gold exists in old river beds in the vicinity of the Sellheim River. It is also obvious that small creeks and wash on low ridges below the Mount Richardson ridgeline also hosts abundant gold. Gold is found in these areas as small nuggets but when waste dump rock material is closely inspected at the mine site, visible gold can be seen in quartz-tourmaline and gossan veins.

Tourmaline Occurring With Gold at Sellheim Gold Project

Tourmaline is a boron-bearing mineral that is often associated with mineralised intrusions. This mineralisation is in fact aluvial gold located close to its rock source. Historic mineral microscopy samples of gold bearing rocks and gold found at the old Sellheim waste dumps and gold plant indicate the gold at the site is hydrothermal-magmatic in its origin and associated with other sulphide minerals locally. This is believed to be the case because of copper sulphide occurring with tourmaline and lead sulphide in the presence of gold inclusions as minerals tetradymite and bismutite form inclusions with tourmaline. They, in turn, are known to host gold inclusions.

In addition, microprobe examinations of gold nuggets found at the Sellheim gold project site indicate a reasonably high, over five percent, silver content. This is also known to occur when gold is found to be close to its source rocks.