Production

History & Tenements

Mining
The Paulsens Deposit was discovered and mined in the early 1930s.  The old mine site is marked by the remains of old surface installations, called the Melrose Mine, at the southwestern edge of the current resource.  Numerous shallow workings occur along the surface exposure of the Melrose Fault approximately 2km to the east of the old mine.

From 1935 to 1940 reported underground production from the Melrose Mine was 2,747t @ 9.52 g/t for a total of 840 ounces gold.  The exposed orebody at the old workings was a partially oxidised quartz-carbonate-sulphide vein, up to 2m thick dipping northeast at about 30 degrees.  The vein was worked over a strike length of approximately 50m and to a depth of over 25m and is part of the larger Melrose Fault Zone.

Exploration
By the end of September 2001, a total of 72,567m of reverse circulation and core drilling had been carried out at the Paulsens Deposit. This drilling was carried out by:

• CRA Exploration Pty Limited (CRAE) in 1987-89,
• Hallmark Gold NL in 1992,
  
• Taipan Resources NL in 1997-2001

CRA worked mostly on the down-dip and strike extensions of the vein worked in the old mine. Initially Taipan extended the identified mineralisation approximately 300m down-dip to the north east and 600m down-plunge to the north west of the CRAE and Hallmark drilling.  Subsequent Taipan programmes involved shallow reverse circulation drilling, to test up-plunge extensions of the mineralisation and a deep reverse circulation and core drilling programme, partially infilling the previous drilling to 25m spacing.

Other exploration work includes geological mapping, surface geochemistry, aerial photography, airborne and ground magnetic surveying, acquisition and interpretation of Geoscan and Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery.

In 1999, Taipan completed a pre-feasibility study which outlined a 500,000tpa project based on a total resource of 2.5mt @ 7.5g/t.  Follow-up review and optimisation studies, addressing the upgrading of the resource, improving mining method, and project economics were carried out in 2000-2002.

Tenements
Intrepid has an interest in 39 individual mining and exploration tenements and tenement applications within the Ashburton Goldfield. These are classified into three named groups covering some 1,500 km2.  The mineral of principal interest is gold.  The tenements are 100% owned by Intrepid Mines Limited, with the exception of two exploration licenses in which the company is earning a majority interest by funding and managing exploration.

The named groups of tenements are as follows:

• Metawandy Creek
  
• Mt Clement
• Paulsens

The Paulsens deposit is covered by two mining leases, M08/099 and M08/196. These tenements were granted in 1990 and 1999, respectively, and both are in good standing.  All other tenements near the Paulsens deposit have been granted and are in good standing.  

The mining leases are free of native title claims.

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Ashburton Tenements and Regional Targets

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