The fifth and final of the popular Wentworth Mine tours and talks hosted by Orange & District Historical Society will take place next Sunday 7 December 2014. A mine tour will take place at 11am at the Wentworth Mine while the talk will take place at noon at the Lucknow Community Centre (the former Public School) in Newman Street. People are welcome to come to either one or both.
Tully Richards, exploration manager with Gold and Copper resources Pty Ltd, returns as the Society’s guest speaker. His subject will be ‘Searching for the mother lode: current gold and mineral exploration in the Orange Region’.
One could be forgiven for thinking, given it is over 170 years since the discovery of copper and 160 since the discovery of gold, that there would be nothing left to find but there is plethora of companies still carrying out exploration and scarcely a square centimetre of the region is not covered by exploration licences. New technology enables the detection of deposits which have no traces on the surface and high prices and modern mining and processing technology enable the profitable exploitation of deposits that would have been hopelessly uneconomic not so many years ago.
Tully has a wonderful depth and breadth of experience in exploration in the district. A graduate in geology from Sydney University in 1993, initially he worked with Hargraves Resources on the Browns Creek mine and associated tenements, followed by four years in Western Australia from 1996-99 mining nickel and gold.. Then it was back locally with Newcrest Mining at Cadia Valley to 2005 before two years with Rangott Mineral Exploration to 2007. Since that time he has held his current position with Gold and Copper Resources based in Lucknow. The company has extensive licences not just at Lucknow but across the region. He knows the geology, the techniques, and the results of previous exploration and has a fair idea of what other companies in the area are achieving.
Participants are welcome to start with coffee from 10am at the Two Fat Ladies coffee shop, Lucknow, before the tour, and for lunch at the Goldfields Tavern after the talk.
Parking is available at the Two Fat Ladies or at the picnic area on the northern side of the Wentworth Mine off Emu Swamp Road. There is plenty of parking at the Community Centre.
The site requires medium fitness with a 300 metre round trip including about 30 steps on a gravel surface. The $5 entry fee for adults is payable at the bottom gate (free entry for children and pensioners).
For bookings and further information please contact Phil Stevenson on 0402 412 188, email ibiswines@bigpond.com