Lake Arthur East and Lake Arthur (the Lake Surprise Project). Data release - as updated - made in lieu of submitting these licences' third partial surrender reports : joint annual reports for the period 29/8/2014 to 28/8/2018.
Published: 10 Jul 1918 Created: 12 Nov 2024 Revised: 12 Nov 2024

A wide basinal area located east of Marree and bordering the northern Willouran Ranges is being explored afresh for sedimentary uranium occurrences in response to market conditions and the demonstrated prospectivity of the local cover rocks, which...

A wide basinal area located east of Marree and bordering the northern Willouran Ranges is being explored afresh for sedimentary uranium occurrences in response to market conditions and the demonstrated prospectivity of the local cover rocks, which previous explorers had reported as containing minor, surficial secondary uranium minerals plus numerous radiometric anomalies, many of which remained untested. During the 2014-2015 project year, no field work was done. A considerable amount of existing drillhole data was reviewed, and preliminary estimation was attempted of a JORC-compliant Inferred Mineral Resource for the Jubilee deposit. Fourteen potentially economic ore blocks, which have average eU3O8 concentrations of >100 ppm and have thicknesses >50 cm, were identified. Several of these blocks appeared to be linked together into a continuous or semi-continuous palaeochannel ore distribution. The geometry of the enriched zones indicated that a mixture of unconformity-related, roll front and sheet-like occurrences are present in this area. Most of the uranium oxide is locked within silicified quartzose sediments and silcrete. It is not known if uranium has been removed from the interlayered, porous and permeable, softer sandstone by post-silicification groundwater events, or if the uranium is still present, but in a disequilibrium state. It was concluded that even if the uranium is only present in the silicified rocks, there appeared to be sufficient volumes of these rock types in the subsurface to constitute a potential economic deposit. However, further infill drilling would be required to test this hypothesis. A tentative resource of ~140,000 lbs of U3O8 worth almost $4 million was calculated, but problems with the quality of the past acquired drillhole data, described in this report, limit the present reliability of this figure. A southwestern appendage to the Jubilee deposit, known as the Plastic Tank prospect, was eliminated from further consideration because it occupies only a tiny volume of Clayton Sub-basin sedimentary rocks and the uranium is mostly confined to the edges of small residual silcrete outcrops. This area is of scientific interest as carnotite and other uranium minerals are commonly visible in broken surfaces of silcrete and within a tiny outcrop of dolomite. The Mookwarinna deposit, located in the southern marginal part of the Clayton Sub-basin within the south-central part of EL 4950, has a significant location, being the closest deposit yet found to the probable uranium source in the northern Flinders Ranges. Based on scant drilling done over a strike length of ~9 km, but with a mineralised zone eU3O8 ranging between 96 and 774 ppm, and thicknesses of enrichment varying from 20 cm to 4.55 m, an exploration target there of ~600,000 lbs of U3O8 was thought to be plausible. The estimate was regarded as a minimal figure, in that it did not take into account the wide spacing of drillholes, that the deposit is open in all directions, that no drill sample assaying was undertaken, and that there is a probable presence of additional uranium in disequilibrium. During the 2015-2016 project year, no field work was done. Plans were made to do appraisal drilling at the main prospects. 62 RAB holes were proposed to upgrade the JORC Inferred Resource at Jubilee, through infill drilling and by defining the margins of some open-ended resource blocks, which it was hoped could provide a two-fold increase in uranium resources, in part achieved through improvements in drilling, gamma ray logging and real time XRF analysis of cores and cuttings. A significant proportion of the uranium present here appeared to have been re-distributed by groundwater movement, which probably continues to the present day, and this process has likely led to the precipitation of undetected, previously unmeasured uranium that is not radioactive and is classified as being in disequilibrium. So once the amount of uranium in the non-radioactive state is known, the potential economic resources in this prospect could be significantly upgraded. These non-radioactive occurrences would be relatively inexpensive to explore, as they lie at shallow depth, between 7 m and 15 m, below the ground surface. At Mookwarinna, which appeared to occupy a much larger area than Jubilee, pilot drilling of 25 infill RAB holes was recommended within a one square km area surrounding previous hole CB4 where the highest grade-thickness uranium mineralised intercept had been obtained. If the basic resource block model applied there could be confirmed and expanded, and if the drilling identified additional uranium in disequilibrium, then the prospect area as a whole, covering more than 8 square km, would become of major interest for hosting a very large uranium resource. 22 more RAB holes spaced 500 m apart were proposed to test this possibility. Other, as yet undrilled prospects of the ‘syncline model’ type, occur the southern parts of ELs 4950 and 4949. These include the east-to-west orientated Stonehenge and Canegrass Synclines, which are located close to the northern Flinders Ranges and thus were considered likely to contain potentially economic uranium accumulations. The synclines appeared to relate to the present day erosion surface, and their fluvial channel fill continues into the subsurface at shallow depths to an estimated maximum of about 35 m. Any uranium occurrences found here if of suitable size would be ideal for open cut mining and heap leaching using perchlorate to extract the uranium. During the 2016-2017 project year, no work was done. Adavale's attention was mainly directed at the sale of its share of Indonesian coal interests, and on securing funding for further exploration. Ongoing desktop photogeological mapping by consultant Brian Senior further outlined the Canegrass Syncline underlying all of an adjacent tenement to the south, EL 5644, also owned by Adavale, that might contain uranium bearing Palaeogene and Neogene sediments. The syncline dips eastward, and so provides a potential direction of travel for uranium within groundwater that is moving along the structure. During the 2017-2018 project year, no work was done. But Adavale successfully sold its Indonesian coal interests, and secured additional exploration funding from investors that would allow it to proceed with its planned infill drilling programmes. The drilling expenditure was expected to be spread over two years due to competing commitments from Adavale's other tenement holdings in South Australia.

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About this record

Record No mesac29515
Topic Geoscientific Information
Type of Resource Document
Category Type
Document Type Mineral Company Report - Mineral Exploration
Contributor B.R. Senior and Associates Pty Ltd
Sponsor Larca Pty Ltd;Adavale Minerals Pty Ltd
Tenement
Tenement Holder Larca Pty Ltd;Adavale Resources Ltd
Operator Adavale Resources Ltd
Geological Province Lake Eyre Basin
Mine Name Jubilee uranium deposit;Plastic Tank uranium deposit;Mookwarinna uranium deposit;Mumpie nos 1 - 4 prospects;Stonehenge prospect
Stratigraphy
Commodity
Notes
Geographic Locality: Lake Arthur;Clayton River;Clayton Station;Murnpeowie Station;Surprise Anticline;Plastic Tank Fault;Inakoo Hill
Doc No: Env 11622

Geographic Locality: Lake Arthur;Clayton River;Clayton Station;Murnpeowie Station;Surprise Anticline;Plastic Tank Fault;Inakoo Hill Doc No: Env 11622

Language English
Metadata Standard ISO 19115-3

Citations

Use constraints License
License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Persistent identifier https://pid.sarig.sa.gov.au/document/mesac29515
Citation Senior, B.R.;Harvey, P.;Rocket, J. 1918. Lake Arthur East and Lake Arthur (the Lake Surprise Project). Data release - as updated - made in lieu of submitting these licences' third partial surrender reports : joint annual reports for the period 29/8/2014 to 28/8/2018. Mineral Company Report - Mineral Exploration
https://pid.sarig.sa.gov.au/document/mesac29515

Technical information

Status
Maintenance and Update Frequency
Geographic Reference GDA2020 (EPSG:7844)
Geo bounding box {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[138.5,-30],[139.5,-30],[139.5,-29],[138.5,-29],[138.5,-30]]]}
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