An area centred approximately 50 km west-northwest of Tarcoola was taken up to explore for possible economic Tertiary palaeochannel-hosted roll front type sedimentary uranium mineralisation. EL 3372 contains the Warrior Palaeochannel, a tributary...
An area centred approximately 50 km west-northwest of Tarcoola was taken up to explore for possible economic Tertiary palaeochannel-hosted roll front type sedimentary uranium mineralisation. EL 3372 contains the Warrior Palaeochannel, a tributary of the much larger Kingoonya palaeochannel system preserved in the central Gawler Craton region. The Warrior Palaeochannel is known, from previous exploration conducted during the 1970s by Japan's Nissho-Iwai and Power and Nuclear Fuels Corp. (PNC), to contain a small occurrence of fluvial sandstone-type uranium mineralisation which has developed at or close to an oxidation/reduction interface with carbonaceous units within the palaeochannel sediments. During mid-December 2005, a reconnaissance airborne electromagnetic survey using the helicopter - borne “HoistEM” system was carried out for Stellar Resources, mainly as an aid to mapping the distribution of the Warrior palaeochannel sediments within EL 3372, as well as for detecting any conductivity anomalies within shallow basement which could reflect possible buried IOCG or other metallic sulphide mineralisation. This survey also extended onto Stellar's adjoining Carnding EL 3369 located to the immediate south and south-east. Over the subject licence area, 27 east-west survey lines spaced at 500 m intervals were flown, for a total AEM coverage of about 325 line km. Following interpretation of the AEM data, Stellar undertook an aircore exploration/appraisal drilling programme of 36 vertical holes for a total penetration of 1997 m, that was designed to confirm the distribution, grade and continuity of mineralisation within the channel and evaluate the economic potential of uranium-bearing Tertiary palaeochannel sediments. The licence Year 1 exploration work showed that widespread uranium mineralisation is present in the Warrior Palaeochannel. However, the initial drilling was done on widely (>500 m) spaced traverses. Infill drilling between those traverses was seen as necessary to establish the continuity of uranium mineralisation throughout the paleochannel, to explore the known anomalous areas and to try to identify areas of higher grade mineralisation. Additional drilling should also test the mineralisation potential at the head of incoming tributaries and in areas where tributaries merge. During licence Year 2 of the subject tenement, after Toro Energy Limited had entered into a joint venture with Stellar Resources Ltd which was approved by PIRSA on 23/4/2007, exploration begun by Toro as new licence operator included the reprocessing and re-interpretation of Stellar’s HoistEM survey data, and the conduct during February-March 2007 of an aircore drilling programme consisting of 214 vertical holes for 10,028.5 m put down along 12 traverses, at nominal spacings of 100 m between holes, a placement designed to define the extent of anomalous sedimentary uranium mineralisation detected by previous PNC and Stellar exploration drillholes. The new drilling confirmed the presence of uranium mineralisation grading up to 906 ppm U3O8 (from 1-metre interval composite cuttings samples), that is distributed throughout the channel sediments over an interpreted strike length of around 15 km. A discrete mineralised area carrying >100 ppm U3O8, covering approximately 1 km x 200 m of Warrior prospect “Area A”, was defined by drilling 89 grid pattern holes in the north of the tenement. A second segment of the palaeochannel located near the southern boundary of EL 3372 was also grid pattern drilled with the other 125 holes, to target previously found anomalous uranium mineralisation. Designated Area B, it was shown to contain lower grade but thicker sequences of mineralisation that are currently much less well defined, and produced assay values of up to 246 ppm U3O8. The mineralisation so far defined occurs either as isolated pockets or as less concentrated broader zones, ranging in size up to an open ended 600 m x 100 m ribbon lying along the margin of the palaeochannel. It appeared that uranium accumulation is still occurring at Area B, as evidenced by several holes having up to 14 m thickness of lower concentrations of uranium than the average content seen over narrower intervals at area A. A number of composite drilling data cross-sections were generated by Toro, showing depths to mineralisation, and allowing comparison of readings from downhole gamma ray geophysical logs with drill cuttings lithology and assay determinations, plotted against AEM conductivity depth images. It was noted that, occasionally, considerable vertical disequilibrium exists between the respective depths of peak gamma ray log response and peak uranium assay result, with the latter's position being up to 4 m below the peak log response in some drillholes. To better understand the cause of this phenomenon, samples of uraniferous very carbonaceous drill cuttings were sent for petrological analysis in order to determine the mineralogical species or associations of the detected uranium; however, no uranium-bearing minerals (e.g. uraninite, coffinite) or physical signs of nuclear radiation were able to be seen in separated heavy mineral concentrates subjected to mineragraphic, autoradiographic and SEM investigations. Therefore the uranium in the drill cuttings samples is believed to have been washed away during concentration of their heavy fractions. The Warrior Palaeochannel is infilled with Eocene and Miocene sediments and is incised into Archaean granitoid basement rocks comprising Mulgathing Complex and Hiltaba Granite. Toro's drilling has shown that parts of the western channel feature have been dug to in excess of 70 m deep. The palaochannel sediments are overlain by a veneer of windblown sand, calcrete and clay up to 20 m thick. The channel strata [in reverse of depositional order] comprise an upper siltstone-sandstone sequence deposited over a lignite bearing carbonaceous horizon which overlies clay-rich sediments containing pyrite and fragments of lignite. Thin channel sands 2-4 m thick occur mostly in the upper sequence, but are also present below the carbonaceous horizon. Widespread uranium mineralisation generally occurs between 21 and 45 m depth, in a 1-6 m thick envelope formed either near the upper contact or within the carbonaceous horizon. The level at which mineralisation has formed is thought to have been influenced by the watertable occurring at or around the same depth as a chemically reducing environment caused by the presence of carbonaceous and/or lignitic material. During licence Year 3, Toro undertook further drill-based evaluation of the known mineralised areas in the main Warrior Palaeochannel plus stepout drilling to establish whether there is continuity of the uranium mineralisation between Areas A and B and whether any mineralisation occurs in the interpreted eastern offshoot of this channel. 4 holes were vertically sonic drilled at Warrior prospect during October 2007, for 171 m of full-hole core recovery, as Toro aimed to use this 100 mm diameter soft sediment drill core for making uranium speciation determinations and to enable calibration comparisons with uranium grade gathered from samples recovered using the aircore method. The remaining 94 of the Year 3 holes, for a total penetration of 4249.5 m, were vertically open aircore drilled during February 2008 and were sampled at 1 m depth intervals. Two-metre composite drill cuttings samples were then assayed via XRF spectroscopy for uranium, thorium and zirconium, yielding maximum assay values of 263 ppm U3O8, 85 ppm Th and 3060 ppm Zr (not from the same drill hole). Only one anomalous downhole gamma ray log result was obtained through this drill programme, from hole AC07WA307 located in the main channel midway between Areas A and B, which has 263 ppm U3O8 at 39-40 m. Here the peak log response occurs at the same depth as the maximum drill cuttings assay value. Uranium speciation studies were carried out by AMDEL Ltd for Toro on sonic drill core sediment samples obtained from hole SR07WA252, after they had been resin impregnated. A sequence of detailed assessment techniques were utilised including auto radiography, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and analysis via the QEMSCAN system which combines a scanning electron microscope, four x-ray detectors and CSIRO-developed software. Anomalous uranium was detected in two core sections by XRF analysis. One interval from 28.5-30 m peaked at 1150 ppm U3O8, and the other interval from 31.2-37.8 m depth peaked at 1300 ppm U3O8. When the QEMSCAN system was used in Trace Mineral Search (TMS) mode on four spot samples with a high uranium oxide content as seen on autoradiographs, it indicated the possibility that an extremely fine grained (<1 micro-m) vanadium-bearing phase of uranium like carnotite is present, associated with cerium-rich monazite. Another sample appeared to have uranium bearing-mineral grains associated with an undefined phase which contain S, Cu, Fe, U and Ca. Although no economic occurrences of sedimentary uranium were found by the drilling done on EL 3372, the proven presence of many small pockets of anomalous uranium mineralisation suggested to Toro that a major deposit might still exist further downstream. Limited sampling for assay of the local groundwater encountered in 18 recent drillholes showed that 8 filtered samples did not have sufficient uranium to be measurable, another two had less than the ambient level of uranium contained in seawater, but of the other 8 samples, one from hole AC08WA297 had over 100 times the seawater concentration, i.e. 0.42 ppm U. This result suggested that the uranium in this particular sample is dissolved and thus mobile within the groundwater. The sampled drillhole is located in the interpreted floodplain area to the west of the main channel. Remaining undrilled areas of ELs 3372 and 3994 which lie to the north of the Trans Australian Railway line were interpreted by Toro as being of shallow depth (<10 m) to basement rocks. Therefore the company decided to focus its future exploration south of the railway line within the western sub-block of EL 3369 Carnding, for which area Toro already had a joint venture arrangement in place with licensee Stellar Resources Limited. The interpreted 2006 AEM survey data for this area suggest that uranium trap areas (channel sand unit pinchouts) and an extensive lagoonal depositional area exist. During licence Year 4, Toro's continued attempts to obtain an Aboriginal Heritage clearance from the Far West Coast Native Title claimants, which would allow legal access for further exploratory drilling of the Warrior Palaeochannel on the potentially prospective land south of the Trans Australian Railway, were unsuccessful. In view of the lack of significant sedimentary uranium hits that were made in its February 2008 drilling, and the inconclusive results obtained from Amdel's testing of sediment core samples trying to find a possible uranium extraction methodology, Toro Energy decided to shift its focus onto the company's other projects, notably outside of South Australia, and so it formally withdrew on 2/7/2009 from the Warrior Project JV Agreement. During licence Year 5, EL 3372 licensee Stellar Resources did no new work, but it reviewed all of Toro's exploration data. The conclusion it made was that the uranium potential of the licence had been well assessed via a total of 659 drillholes put in by PNC (297), Stellar (46) and Toro (316), and by an AEM geophysical survey of Stellar's. The resulting distribution of known anomalous uranium mineralisation is patchy, and it occurs within the margins of the interpreted main palaeodrainage channel. The buried palaeochannel areas of the tenement that had been drilled to date appeared likely to hold additional small pockets of anomalous uranium mineralisation, but their total volume would need to be greatly augmented for an economic deposit to be realised. Stellar continued to seek a new joint venture partner who would help fund ongoing drilling to obtain geological data sufficient to allow the preparation of a uranium resource estimate for the Warrior prospect. During licence Year 6, Stellar Resources sold the subject renewed EL 4570 to Renaissance Uranium Limited, the transaction subsequently being approved by the SA Minister of Mines on 21/12/2012. Over the succeeding six years, Renaissance (which became renamed Renascor Resources Ltd on 2/12/2013) was unable to carry out any on-ground work on the tenement because the world market for sales of uranium remained too subdued to enable the company to raise risk funds adequate for resuming exploration. The decision to fully surrender tenure was made in August 2017.