An area on the south-western edge of the Frome Embayment, that is centred ~100 km south of the Beverley uranium mine, has been taken up to explore for possible buried palaeochannel and sandstone hosted roll front style secondary uranium...
An area on the south-western edge of the Frome Embayment, that is centred ~100 km south of the Beverley uranium mine, has been taken up to explore for possible buried palaeochannel and sandstone hosted roll front style secondary uranium mineralisation which may have formed within the Tertiary age Namba and Eyre formations. Potential is also thought to exist for unconformity style base metal mineralisation and gold deposits that could be associated with faulting within Lower Cambrian limestone. In late July 2016, five peripheral sub-blocks of the licence that together total 149 square km or ~37.3% of the original licence area were relinquished. The only work performed that is relevant to the relinquished ground portions, aside from Heathgate making a literature review and compilation of records and data from historical exploration activity, was the drilling in December 2015 of one open vertical rotary mud drillhole for 192 m total penetration to test an area of shallower basement interpreted from historic airborne electromagnetic (AEM) survey data. The drilling intersected interpreted Pleistocene-Pliocene Willawortina Formation equivalents from surface to 42 m depth, then Miocene-Oligocene Namba Formation from 42 m to 113 m, weathered basement clays from 113 m to 167 m, and very weakly weathered Adelaidean metasedimentary basement, composed of finally laminated siltstones, from 167 m to 192 m. Here, on the south-western side of the tenement, the Namba Formation directly overlies basement, with its lithologies as intersected being dominated by oxidised clays and silts, plus a few discrete sand horizons. No anomalous downhole gamma ray log radioactivity responses were recorded; a peak logged value of 320 cps occurred at 59 m depth.
More +