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FULL REPORT: PAGE 12

No. 31,434 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2015 www.bdtruth.com.au PRICE $1.30*

BARRIER DAILY TRUTH: MADE IN BROKEN HILL

New clue to lodeBy Andrew Robertson

A local geoscientist believes a new exploration technique he’s developed could lead to the discovery of more Broken Hill-type deposits in the district and beyond.

Dr Paul Millsteed has already spoken to a number of local min-ing companies about the technique which he developed after discov-ering a suite of microscopic crys-talline iodine and bromine-bearing minerals directly linked to Broken Hill-type ores.

The presence of iodine and bro-mine in subsurface soil indicates the possible existence of a metal sulfide orebody - like the 300 mil-lion tonne zinc, lead and silver deposit still being mined under the city today.

Dr Millsteed made the discov-ery during his PhD studies at the

Australian National University in Canberra.

He recently presented his find-ings to the Society of Economic Geologists annual conference in Hobart, which was attended by more than 740 geoscientists from 44 countries.

To test his theory, he carried out specialised soil analyses adjacent to the line of lode with the support of ALS Laboratories in Perth.

He found that the soils adjacent to exposed gossan (the dark-coloured rocky outcrop of the ore deposit)

contained abundant amounts of the halogens, especially iodine.

Several soils from the surround-ing district were also analysed to determine the relative background amounts of halogens contained in them.

“The halogen anomalies are directly linked to the halogen-rich sulfide orebody through leakage and secondary enrichment,” Dr Millsteed explained.

Most of the iodine measured in the soils is referred to as Iodine 127, and linked to the formation

of the local orebodies over 1.69 billion years ago.

Fellow local exploration geosci-entist Wolfgang Leyh is an enthu-siastic supporter of the technique which, according to Dr Millsteed, is a cheaper and less invasive way of finding orebodies than more widely-used methods.

He said it could breathe new life into the search for mineral deposits in the district.

“If you’ve got an ore body buried deep how are you going to find it?

“We’ve got something we can use to find another orebody.”

It could also, he said, be employed in other areas of Australia and the world where Broken Hill-type ore-bodies existed.

Broken Hill-born Dr Millsteed obtained his first job in the city with Minerals Mining and Metallurgy, working as a train-ee geologist before moving over to CRA Exploration and then to the geological survey of NSW Department of Mineral Resources.

He spent 27 years in the ACT where he worked for the University of Canberra but returned to his hometown a couple of years ago, taking up a job as an exploration geologist with CBH Resources.

Shortly after, CBH cut its local workforce along with its explo-ration budget. Since then he has been consulting for a number of companies on exploration projects around the district.

Continued Page 3

Soil key to riches, says BH geologist

Aaron Carroll suited up as the classic Star Wars villain Darth Vader yesterday as excitement grows for the new film. The movie is scheduled to be released in Australia on December 17 but the Silver City Cinema is aiming to get in before the rest of the nation. Full story, page 5. PICTURE: Darrin Manuel

2 — Barrier Daily Truth, Tuesday, October 20, 2015

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Anti-racism chants echoed down Argent Street in October 2006, as the Broken Hill High School Year 10 took to the streets after studying “political protest theatre”. They decided to make a public statement out of their lessons.

Back then

Town turns pinkCommunity support

for fighting cancer runs so deep it’s turned the town pink.

Locals might have noticed they’ve been living in a “pink town” since the start of the month as a number of businesses and their staff have donned pink shirts to support Pink October.

Many are also using the month to raise money for local cancer support groups.

Cavpower has raised more than $3,000 and will split the money between the Breast Cancer Support Group and the Prostate Cancer Support Group.

Area Manager Tony Everuss said the busi-ness raised the cash from employee donations and barbecues.

“A number of our employees have pur-chased pink high-vis shirts of which 10 per cent of the sale cost went to the Breast Cancer sup-port group,” Mr Everuss said.

“Each Friday we’ve been having barbe-cue lunches and raffles which the staff donated towards.”

A contractor that uses Cavpower, Solcon, run by Gary Milnes, also painted a truck pink.

“We’ve also put the blue Prostate Cancer ribbon on one of the buckets on a loader,” Mr Everuss said.

“The company itself has donated $1,000 and the social club has donat-ed $500.

“It was a joint effort and the office ladies did a lot of work behind the scenes.”

The team at the Democratic Club are also doing fundraisers. Besides buying pink tops the Demo Ladies Bowling Club will run a fundraiser on October 31 at 5pm. There will be a $5 entry fee which will give you a ticket in the raffle.

Breast Cancer Support Group’s Kerri Baker said she was overwhelmed by all the support.

“We have received wonderful support and I would like to thank Cavpower for their dona-tion,” she said.

“The whole of Broken Hill has gotten behind this initiative.”

The team at Cavpower and the Breast Cancer Support Group with the painted loader and truck.

Mawsons Quarry head office purchased pink tops for all their staff and some leftover footy tipping money from the staff went towards the pink hats. They also donated to a barbecue fundraiser lunch.

The staff at the Demo in various shades of pink. Playtime Preschool staff all bought tops for Pink October.

Cavpower Area Manager Tony Everuss and administrator assis-tant Julie Edgecumbe after the donation was made to Breast Cancer Support Group’s Kerri Baker.

PICTURESby

EmilyRoberts

Barrier Daily Truth, Tuesday, October 20, 2015 — 3

In October 2006, construction of the $28 million Anabranch pipeline was set to be finished by the end of the month, weeks ahead of schedule.

Backthen

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Dr Millsteed said he has spo-ken to a number of mining com-panies about his technique and, while there has been some inter-est, there appeared to be little appetite for exploration.

“Everybody’s just sitting back, not doing anything.”

The city was also at a low point but Dr Millsteed said that could all change in an instant with a big find.

Dr Paul Millsteed at the Society of Economic Geologists annual conference in Hobart recent-ly where he presented the exploration technique he has developed. PICTURE: Supplied

Soil key to riches, says BH geologist

“If we make a discovery with this technique ... it will lift our town out of the doldrums.”

The geoscientist even nomi-nated the area that he believes

has the most potential in terms of delivering the next big deposit that has so far proven so elusive.

“I think Mundi Mundi Plains and adjacent to the Umberumberka mine is where we are have a good chance to find a significant ore body.”

Dr Millsteed said he was will-ing to discuss his technique with exploration companies looking for Broken Hill-type orebodies in the district, and can be contacted on 0437 654 223.

If we make a discov-ery with this technique ... it will lift our town out of the doldrums’‘

TacklingservicedeliveryBy Erica Visser

City Council could share services with seven other outback councils under pro-posals discussed by a new advisory com-mittee.

The Far West Initiative met for the first time last week after having been formed to tackle problems involv-ing service delivery at a local government level.

It encompasses eight remote coun-cils - Broken Hill, Central Darling Shire, Balranald, Bourke, Brewarrina, Cobar, Walgett and Wentworth - as well as the Unincorporated Area.

C o m m i t t e e Chairman, John Williams, has been appointed for a three-year term during which he hopes to make exten-sive changes to the day-to-day operations of the councils, which have historically delivered

services independently of one another.

“I’m hoping at the end of this we’ve improved the lives of people who live in these communities,” the for-mer local State MP said yesterday.

“There’s been a fair bit of criticism, proba-bly not as focussed in Broken Hill as it is in the small communities, about the amount of service duplications and the lack of outcomes.”

Mr Williams said one way of improving effi-ciency was for the eight councils to share com-mon service providers.

“What we are focus-

ing on primarily is how we can do things col-lectively among eight shires...joining together to reduce costs of run-ning local government.

“You would have one professional service provider with data from all those shires going into the one agency.

“There have been a lot of problems attract-ing accountants to shire areas. If there was pro-fessional advice coming out of one location the audit function can be carried out much easier than in the past.”

The committees include representatives from each of the coun-cils, as well as NGOs and state and federal government agencies.

“There’s money on the table to enable change to happen to make local government more resilient,” Mr Williams said.

The next commit-tee meeting will be held in Bourke in early December.

John Williams

Attorney-General George Brandis is being urged to do more to protect domestic vio-lence victims in court.

Independent MP Cathy McGowan has asked parliament to scrap a provision that allows self-represented violent offend-ers to cross-examine their vic-tims.

Moving a motion on Monday,

Ms McGowan called on the gov-ernment to urgently legislate to protect victims giving evidence in court.

The practice was exposing already traumatised and broken victims to further pain.

“Imagine the circumstance when a victim of such violence finally gets out of that situation ... is exposed to further violence

by their abuser in the family court system,” she said.

Liberal MP Karen McNamara backed the motion, saying it was “unacceptable” for an alleged abuser to be able to cross-exam-ine their victim.

“There is nothing more con-fronting than having to interact with a victim’s perpetrator in a formal court setting,” she said.

-AAP

MP seeks court protection for victims