A programme of further drilling, metallurgy, conceptual mining and feasibility for the recovery of gold, copper, silver and sulphuric acid is in progress. The Peak Hill volcanics are thought to be part of the Goonumbla Volcanics, but are separated from the main volcanic suite by north-south arc parallel structures, such as the Parkes Thrust. The LTZ can be traced south easterly to the Cadia and Browns Creek mines, near Orange. Regional geological mapping by the Department of Mineral Resources indicates that the volcanics at Peak Hill form a fault bounded anticlinal structure overlain by the Ordovician sedimentary Cotton Formation and Mugincoble Chert, which are in turn overlain by Silurian sediments. Significant transported cover obscures the sequence to the west.
Shaley sediments are common further to the east.
The central area is marked by intense and pervasive alteration which now forms an elongate zone, 3.3km x 0.6km within which the textures of the host andesitic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks have been almost totally destroyed. Gold mineralisation is found throughout the alteration zone but is more common, and achieves ore grades, in silica-pyrite bodies which form both near vertical tabular and pipe like lenses. Copper is more variable and may have precipitated separately from the gold. Gold is thought to exist mainly as sub-micron particles within the pyrite and there is some evidence to indicate at least two species of pyrite are present in the ore system. The alteration and mineralisation display all of the characteristics of a high sulphidation style epithermal deposit which often form in the upper levels of porphyry related volcanic complexes.