Australia's junior explorers - The ASIA Miner

Australian Junior Explorers
PRINCESS WILL ADD TO MULGA ROCKS URANIUM RESOURCES
ENERGY and Minerals Australia’s (EMA) newly
discovered Princess uranium deposit at the
Mulga Rock project in southern Western Australia
is expected to add significantly to the already
substantial resource. Highlights of a 260
hole drill program at Princess include significant
uranium intersections
with grades up to
5968ppm and continuous
mineralized intervals
to 8.22 metres
thick at less than 40
metres depth.
The deposit is a
single body about
1.4km-long and between
100 and 500
metres wide. The air
core drilling and
gamma logging pr ogram
covered a total of
17,788 metres at the
site, and was part of a
$1.21 million exploration
schedule for the
March 2012 quarter.
EMA says the new deposit confirms the
significant potential of its large landholding at
Mulga Rock. Chemical assay testing of air -
core cuttings from the drill holes is under way,
and the company says compilation of data to
be included in a JORC-compliant r esource
54 | ASIA Miner | July/August 2011
estimate has also commenced.
On site analysis of more than 6000 samples
have provided indications of the uranium grades
of the mineralization, which EMA believes
suggest potential for basement-hosted primary
mineralization including uranium, base
and precious metals. The company is working
to identify further drill targets at the site.
The Mulga Rock pr oject is about 240km
northeast of the r egional city of Kalgoorlie-
Boulder. EMA owns 915sqkm of land at the
site, which is proving promising for low-cost
uranium resources. The project consists of
four separate deposits - Ambassador , Emperor,
Shogun and Princess - making it one of
Australia’s largest undeveloped uranium r esources.
EMA says the deposits also contain nickel,
cobalt, rare earth elements,
yttrium, scandium,
vanadium, copper,
zinc and gold, with some
of these commodities to
be produced as a byproduct
from uranium
production.
Mulga Rock shar es
access infrastructure
with AngloGold Ashanti’s
Tropicana gold pr oject,
with the road construction
nearing completion.
EMA’s managing dir ector
Mike Fewster says
the company has the
right to use about
160km of the road as alternate
access to its
Mulga Rock project.
Meanwhile, base line studies are continuing
for the development of the Ambassador deposit,
with an environmental scoping study
being finalized as the basis for the envir onmental
assessment process.
THOMSON REVEALS COPPER-GOLD AT CUTTABURRA
FURTHER copper-gold mineralization has
been confirmed at Thomson Resources’ Cuttaburra
deposit in northwest New South
Wales. Assay results continue to highlight the
good exploration potential for significant Intrusive
Related Gold (IRG) deposits that Thomson
believes may be present in this region.
Selected intervals from a 480 metre wide alteration
system intersected in a r ecent drill
program have yielded significant gold and
copper results including 1.46 grams/tonne
gold, 0.1% copper and 10.9 grams/tonne silver
in 3.3 metres from 448.5 metres depth,
including 3.7 grams/tonne gold, 0.2% copper,
29 grams/tonne silver , 0.1% lead and
0.1% bismuth in 1 metre from 449.8 metres.
The Princess deposit is not far from EMA’s other uranium deposits at Mulga Rocks.
A reverse circulation drill program is being
designed to test the shallower parts of Cuttaburra,
with this method also allowing a better
estimate of gold content. The company’s
plans to move heavy drill equipment into the
area have been delayed by wet weather and
flooding, with the Thomson Fold Belt area receiving
its highest rainfall on record for the last
two years. Surface exploration did continue
at the company’s Byrock project, with several
ironstone gossans at the Kenilworth Station
prospect returning portable XRF results of up
to 57% iron with anomalous tungsten, lead
and zinc. Thomson will continue to work on
defining a possible drill target at this prospect.
The company has signed thr ee new joint
venture agreements which it says will pr ovide
access to new pr ospects at the Ghostrider
project 100km west of Cobar and the Achilles/Tooroonga
project 180km south of Cobar.
Within the Ghostrider pr oject area, the Bulla
Bulla anomaly is the most significant prospect.
Historic drilling defined a 4km-long anomaly
with maximum values of 1.15% lead, 0.22%
zinc, 0.12% copper and 25 ppm silver.
At the Achilles/Tooroonga joint ventures,
the stand out prospect is at Mt Boorithumble
which is 26km northwest on strike from
Comet Resources’ Browns Reef project. A
900 metre-long lead anomaly has been tested
by one diamond drill hole and two percussion
holes.