From September to October 2002, shallow drilling, using the submersible (5 m) Rockdrill of the British Geological Survey and the German R/V Sonne revealed critical information on the subsurface nature of two distinct hydrothermal systems in the New Ireland fore-arc and the Manus Basin of Papua New Guinea, Drilling at Conical Seamount significantly extends the known surface extent of the previously discovered vein-style gold mineralization (up to 230 g/t Au) at this site. Drilling the conventional PACMANUS volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposit recovered complexly textured massive sulfide with spectacular concentrations of gold in several core sections including 0.5 m 28 g/t Au, 0.35 m 30 g/ t Au, and 0.20 m 57 g/t Au. Shallow drilling is a fast and cost efficient method that bridges the gap between surface sampling and deep (ODP) drilling and will become a standard practice in the future study of seafloor hydrothermal systems and massive sulfide deposits. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Inc.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Earth Sciences
Research Group:	Geology
Research Field:	Resource geoscience
Objective Division:	Mineral Resources (Excl. Energy Resources)
Objective Group:	Mineral exploration
Objective Field:	Precious (noble) metal ore exploration
UTAS Author:	Gemmell, JB (Professor Bruce Gemmell)
ID Code:	39075
Year Published:	2005
Web of Science® Times Cited:	20
Deposited By:	Centre for Ore Deposit Research - CODES CoE
Deposited On:	2005-08-01
Last Modified:	2006-05-05
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