A small area centred ~60 km south-west of Whyalla and ~37 km north-northeast of Cowell, which lay along the fault scarp at the edge of the western Spencer Gulf coastal plain, has been explored for both primary and secondary uranium deposits....
A small area centred ~60 km south-west of Whyalla and ~37 km north-northeast of Cowell, which lay along the fault scarp at the edge of the western Spencer Gulf coastal plain, has been explored for both primary and secondary uranium deposits. Targets included both possible IOCG type mineralisation formed in buried Hiltaba Suite basement, as well as perhaps related younger Tertiary sandstone-hosted secondary uranium deposits which might have formed in a similar setting to that of the recently discovered Eocene sedimentary uranium occurrence at Mullaquana, which is located not far distant to the north-east. Data from an airborne electromagnetic survey that was flown in January 2010 over several licences in the region had indicated the likely continuation of the Mullaquana host strata south-westwards into the Midgee locale. The subject licence lay directly north of the much larger EL 3978 Cowell that was also held by Rennaissance Uranium Limited (Rennaissance). During the initial licence year, on-ground exploration was limited by the ASX requirement that no substantial changes in circumstance for the company are allowed during an IPO period (Renaissance listed successfully in December 2010). Consequently, field work was restricted to acquisition of part of a reconnaissance gravity survey in December 2010, when 82 stations were read at 200 m intervals along local road verges. Other planned activities were disrupted by the discovery that large areas of the tenement are covered by Native Vegetation Heritage Agreements (HA 462, 468, 628, 809 and 977) which were not described in the licence documentation nor in any PIRSA public domain databases. Although land owners associated with these Heritage Agreements were contacted about exploration activities, none were enthusiastic about any level of exploration occurring within these areas. During licence Year 2, the new gravity data were processed and interpreted, following which the indicated near-surface boundary of the granite was traversed in the field to look for potential proximal development of coarse-grained and reduced Pirie Basin sediments, analogous to the facies setting of UraniumSA's Blackbush prospect. An initial drilling program performed by Renaissance Uranium on adjacent EL 3978 in the same reporting year confirmed the existence of thick sequences of ISR - amenable Eocene sands and Miocene calcareous sands in all 26 holes drilled. The drilling encountered Miocene sands associated with the Melton Limestone and thick sequences of dark grey to black Eocene sands and lignite of the Kanaka Beds. During licence Year 3, Rennaissance did no field work. The granite-sediment contact geology was reviewed to further determine prospectivity for Blackbush type uranium and also possibly, White Dam style gold which could be associated with a sheared and albite-altered granite margin. Out of this it was decided to reduce the licence size by ~26% when applying for the Year 4 renewal. During licence Year 4 and 5, plans were made to conduct ground magnetic surveys and soil geochemical sampling along the granite intrusion margin, to help in selecting sites to RC drill to look for buried skarn type copper-gold mineralisation. However, no field work was done. Eventually it was decided to fully surrender tenure.
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