Merty Merty (part of the Big Lake Project). Final report for approved geophysical program, Project ADI RD01-109 [part of Accelerated Discovery Initiative Round 1, 2021].
Published: 20 Aug 1921 Created: 12 Nov 2024 Revised: 12 Nov 2024

An ADI funds grant of ~A$152,400 has been provided to Alligator Energy to assist it with conducting further greenfields exploration for in situ recoverable secondary uranium mineralisation that may have formed within Tertiary cover sediments in...

An ADI funds grant of ~A$152,400 has been provided to Alligator Energy to assist it with conducting further greenfields exploration for in situ recoverable secondary uranium mineralisation that may have formed within Tertiary cover sediments in the Cooper Basin region. The target model is Kahzakstan style palaeochannel roll front and overbank sand sheet - hosted deposits that are analogous to the Beverley and Four Mile uranium occurrences. A work programme based on geophysics was proposed, whereby initially the company would undertake static filtering of existing 3D seismic survey data to model discontinuities (inferred clay aquicludes) within the Namba Formation palaeochannel fill that could have acted as permeability traps to migrating groundwater containing dissolved uranium. However, trial refraction statics processing yielded poor results due to the lack of seismic velocity contrasts evident below the weathering zone, and so this concept for low resolution mapping of features of the known palaeochannel system was abandoned in favour of directly detecting ponded saline groundwater therein by the use of airborne electromagnetic survey methods. During May 2021, a 1332.8 line km SkyTEM AEM survey was acquired over three prospect areas, seeking to obtain conductivity responses similar to those reported as being produced by the Goulds Dam uranium deposit located within the Billeroo Palaeochannel of the Frome Embayment. This survey method was chosen due to its versatility in generating laterally constrained layer inversion models from the z-component EM data down to a depth of 250 m, as borne out by reports of palaeochannel detection work done in the recent past. The subject Big Lake survey's flight line spacing was variously 400 m to 500 m, and the nominal sensor height above the ground surface was 35 m. Correlations made between the AEM data and detailed Tertiary sedimentary stratigraphy revealed by limited congruently located previous drillholes put in by Santos and TC Development Corp. showed that in the central prospect more conductive layers are associated with logged sand-rich horizons. The conductivity contrast diminishes towards the south and is largely absent over all of the western prospect, although across this area conductivities are about an order of magnitude higher than they are within the central and eastern prospects. This observation is thought to be due to a shallower ground water table and locally increased groundwater salinity related to a regional Tertiary depocentre, the Grenache Basin. A regional interpretation of possible meandering palaeochannels was made using the SkyTEM AEM data, and varying levels of confidence were assigned to the picks depending on their relationship to survey flight line orientation, with more confidence attached to east-west aligned interpreted channel segments. It was noted that the expression of palaeochannel features is not as clear as that produced by the Billeroo Palaeochannel TEM survey data. If a drilling budget can be raised, Alligator Energy plans to progressively test priority conductive anomalies on EL 6367 to obtain subsurface data that will let it calibrate the SkyTEM data. If this ideal situation is not realised, the company intends to conduct targeted ground geophysical surveys of passive seismic, gravity and resistivity over selected transects where the most coherent channel responses have been observed.

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About this record

Record No mesac29638
Topic Geoscientific Information
Type of Resource Document
Category Type
Document Type Mineral Company Report - Mineral Exploration
Contributor SkyTEM Surveys APS, Dyssen, Denmark
Sponsor Alligator Energy Ltd
Tenement EL 6367
Tenement Holder Big Lake Uranium Pty Ltd
Operator Alligator Energy Ltd
Geological Province Lake Eyre Basin
Mine Name
Stratigraphy
Commodity uranium
Notes
Geographic Locality: Strzelecki Desert;Strzelecki Creek;Merty Merty Waterhole;Strzelecki Regional Reserve;Big Lake Palaeochannel;2021 Big Lake SkyTEM Survey;Flight lines L102101, L303301
Doc No: Env 13305
Drillhole: TC Development Corp....

Geographic Locality: Strzelecki Desert;Strzelecki Creek;Merty Merty Waterhole;Strzelecki Regional Reserve;Big Lake Palaeochannel;2021 Big Lake SkyTEM Survey;Flight lines L102101, L303301 Doc No: Env 13305 Drillhole: TC Development Corp. D015;(254156) Drillhole Unit No: 6841 00282

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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/mesac29638
Citation Lightfoot, R.;Moorhouse, P. 1921. Merty Merty (part of the Big Lake Project). Final report for approved geophysical program, Project ADI RD01-109 [part of Accelerated Discovery Initiative Round 1, 2021]. Mineral Company Report - Mineral Exploration
https://pid.sarig.sa.gov.au/document/mesac29638

Technical information

Status
Maintenance and Update Frequency
Geographic Reference GDA2020 (EPSG:7844)
Geo bounding box {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[139.5,-28.5],[140.5,-28.5],[140.5,-28],[139.5,-28],[139.5,-28.5]]]}
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