During 2010-2011, the sixth year of the subject licence, as part of its continuing search for buried economic Tertiary sediment-hosted roll front style secondary uranium deposits, Marmota conducted the following work: • acquired a 58.6 line km...
During 2010-2011, the sixth year of the subject licence, as part of its continuing search for buried economic Tertiary sediment-hosted roll front style secondary uranium deposits, Marmota conducted the following work: • acquired a 58.6 line km moving loop ground EM survey over the Bridget prospect at suitable times during the period October 2010 to March 2011, using a 100 m x 100 m transmitter loop to take soundings along 28 east-west lines • performed two further campaigns of exploratory rotary mud drilling and later downhole wireline geophysical logging. Phase 2 was conducted in May 2010, when 56 vertical holes totalling 8193 m were completed at the Saffron prospect. Phase 3 drilling commenced in April 2011, and by the end of May, 51 vertical holes totalling 6921 m had been completed at the Saffron and Bridget prospects. Both drilling campaigns were designed to test the geology of poorly known areas of the Yarramba Palaeochannel system. Limited previous drilling into this system had identified strata within the Tertiary sedimentary sequence which are suitable for hosting and trapping uranium mineralisation • undertook geochemical analyses of selected drill cuttings samples and bottomhole core bedrock samples of interest from the Phase 2 drilling campaign. Two gamma ray log - interpreted uranium-bearing sandstone drill core samples, selected from holes SARM061 and SARM066, were submitted to Amdel for mineral characterisation using QEMSCAN (Quantitative Evaluation of Minerals by SCANning electron microscopy). The aim of doing the analysis was to identify the uranium-bearing minerals and describe their textural characteristics. The main such minerals detected in the samples are coffinite and a Ca-P-U phase nominally identified as autunite. Trace amounts of brannerite are also present. These uranium minerals have a strong association with kaolinite and pyrite. They are generally very fine grained (<2 microns) and are finely intergrown with silicate and sulphide minerals, besides appearing to have an overall poor exposure to the surface of the host particles. During the first year of its involvement in the licence, UXA's activities were as follows: • undertaking a review of past exploration and capturing historical drillhole information • transcoding the content of past drill logs to match UXA's logging system • compiling a ‘Prospectivity Analysis Sheet’ of all potential base metal targets that at this stage it could identify • re-processing and re-imaging regional and prospect scale aeromagnetic and gravity data. During 2011-2012, the seventh year of the subject licence, Marmota conducted the following work: • acquired a 102 line km moving loop ground EM survey over the Yolanda prospect during the period November-December 2011, using a 100 m x 100 m transmitter loop to take soundings along 34 east-west lines. The aim of this survey was to assist in detecting the Yarramba Palaeochannel within the southern part of EL 4509 • performed two further campaigns of exploratory rotary mud drilling and later downhole wireline geophysical logging. The continuation of the Phase 3 campaign saw 37 vertical holes completed for 4878 m, the majority being drilled at the Saffron prospect, with the rest being drilled at the Bridget and Yolanda prospects. In addition, for the first time 11 other, sonic cored holes totalling 1490 m were also drilled into known semi-consolidated uranium-mineralised sands, to try to obtain better sample returns: 10 of these holes were drilled at the Saffron prospect, with the final hole drilled at the Bridget prospect. The Phase 4 drilling campaign commenced in April 2012. Approximately 60 rotary mud holes were proposed for this campaign, of which 38 holes totalling 5085 m had been completed by the end May 2012 • undertook geochemical analyses of selected drill cuttings samples and bottomhole core bedrock samples of interest from the Phase 3 drilling campaign. As an outcome of this activity, it was recommended that a retention lease be taken out over the Saffron prospect uranium occurrence, prior to conducting baseline environmental studies there to inform the design of an in situ leach (ISL) solution mining project. Further sonic drilling is planned at Saffron, to provide data that will allow Marmota to prepare a JORC Code compliant indicated resource estimate for the orebody. An Inferred Resource of 5.43 million pounds of U308 was calculated for it by Marmota during November 2011 from then available data. During this reporting year, UXA Resources continued to do desktop studies of the licence's base metal potential. During 2012-2013, the eighth year of the subject licence, Marmota conducted the following work: • completed the Phase 4 drilling campaign, with 22 more vertical rotary mud exploratory holes for 2968 m. The majority of these holes were drilled at the Bridget and Yolanda prospects, with some holes drilled at the Saffron prospect to delineate the boundaries of the Yarramba Palaeochannel • commissioned from SGS Lakefield Oretest Pty Ltd a QEMSCAN mineralogical assessment of two selected drill core samples of interest recovered from the Phase 3 campaign's sonic drilled holes BRSO001 and SASO007. It was confirmed that here the geophysical wireline log-indicated uranium mineralisation is indeed present in the form of uraninite and autunite. During this reporting year, UXA Resources made preparations to begin drilling base metal targets late in 2013. During 2013-2014, no work was done. During 2014-2015, activities comprised: - bottle roll leach testing, conducted on selected and composited samples taken from mineralised intervals that were encountered in three of the previously sonic drilled holes, to measure the likely amount of uranium that could be extracted from the host sand unit, relative to calculated ore grade. The test results were generally higher than what is typically achieved for an ISL solution mining operation, and demonstrated that once oxidised, the uranium in the Saffron deposit dissolves very easily in a mildly acidic leaching solution; and - analysis of aquifer matrix lithology, undertaken by an independent hydrogeologist, to assess the probable spectrum of permeability of the unconsolidated sediments. Permeability is critical in any attempted solution mining by the ISL method, to allow the leaching fluids to move through the host sediment and effectively come into contact with the ore. It was concluded that 61% of the known mineralisation at Saffron is probably contained in clean, fine to coarse grained Eyre Formation sands, and so would be ideally suited to ISL mining. A further 26% of the intersected mineralisation is expected to be moderately amenable to ISL mining because of the attendant higher clay content. Marmota stated that these findings are consistent with industry standard values for total uranium recovery by ISL methods of around 70%. The findings are also consistent with those of a comparable study of the Beverley deposit that was undertaken in 1996 prior to its progression to Field Leaching Trials. The Beverley study had found that 60% to 75% of intersected mineralisation was hosted in sands then considered amenable to ISL recovery mining. Because of the current downturn in the uranium industry, Marmota proposed to continue with moving the Saffron deposit to retention lease (RL) ownership status. This would ensure that the resource is in the best position for rapid development when the uranium market improves. During 2015-2016, Iluka Resources was the only joint venturer to the Junction Dam licence to conduct a work programme, which still continued to address the potential for finding economic buried Broken Hill type stratiform lead-zinc-silver mineralisation in Palaeoproterozoic basement rocks. A ground gravity surveying programme was conducted in March 2016 by Atlas Geophysics over a prospective target area on the subject EL 5682, which also extends onto neighbouring EL 6404 in New South Wales. On EL 5682, the survey coverage consisted of 1060 stations over an area of 33.3 square km. Station spacing was a combination of a 200 m x 200 m regular base grid and offset 200 m x 100 m and 200 m x 50 m infill grids. This survey addressed the Belmont and Mammoth prospects. The data collected will be used to define targets for a diamond drill programme planned for the 2016-2017 reporting period. The Belmont and Mammoth prospects had been identified by previous explorers, and were last tested during the early 2000s in drilling done by Inco Ltd in partnership with original licensee Platsearch NL under an earlier tenure, of EL 2776 [see Env 9830]. Subsequent re-interpretation of past data suggests that highly prospective areas within these targets remain untested. Other, office-based work undertaken by Iluka as an incoming exploration participant included the compilation of historical data, reprocessing of existing geophysical data, inspecting stored historical drill cores, and making a geological synthesis. During 2016-2017 work completed on the tenement included historical data compilation, geophysical data reprocessing [see included reports], gravity modelling (completed by Terra Resources – see included report) and geological synthesis. Work in the current reporting period was undertaken by Iluka Resources. On 30th January 2018 Iluka Resources Ltd withdrew from the agreement effectively handing back management to Teck Australia. More recently Marmota Energy, who have 100% of the Uranium rights on the license have deferred to Teck for license operation and administration. During the 2017-2018 reporting period no field work was completed, with efforts focussed on tenements held over the border in New South Wales. Minor desktop research and geological interpretation was undertaken.
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