Malachite used old mining records from the Conrad Mine located near Inverell.
Some of the records were dug out of university archives.
The company also drew on an analogy between what it saw at Conrad and what it knew about the famous silver lodes at Coeur d'Alene in Idaho, USA, one of the world's great silver mining districts.
Subsequent exploration at Conrad supported that interpretation.
The resources company also found the old and largely discarded geophysical exploration tool known as VLF-EM particularly effective in defining drill targets along strike from the old mine workings. Scoping studies and other pre-development activities have commenced, based on an initial economic target of 1 million tonnes of ore grading 15-20 oz/t AgEQ, and the company has purchased a 340 ha freehold property adjoining the mine for construction of mine site facilities.
The Conrad deposit includes both near vertical, high grade, narrow (0.5-1 m wide) fissure veins, with lower grade mineralized envelopes up to 3 m wide, and broader (20-40 m wide) bulk tonnage mineralization hosted by altered granite ("greisen").
Recent drilling results have exceeded early expectations, enhancing the prospect of re-opening the mine.