Marree Project, SA.
The Marree Uranium Project, located 550 km north of Adelaide, comprises four granted Exploration Licences 3389, 3390, 3510 and 3557, and one license application covering 2,571 km in the Eromanga Basin, adjacent to the uranium-rich Mount Babbage Inlier.
The project area includes the Tertiary Eyre and Namba Formations, host to several sedimentary roll-front uranium occurrences including the Beverley and Honeymoon Well uranium deposits, and the recently discovered high grade uranium mineralisation at Beverley Four Mile.
Highlights
- Farm in and JV agreement signed with Korean Consortium.
- First Korean government investment in an Australian uranium project.
- Korean consortium: government-owned Korea Resources Corporation with Daewoo and LG International.
- $6.2 million over three years, to fund exploration at Marree.
- Mud rotary drilling program completed in August 2008: 19 holes for 2,486m.
On the 20th of October 2008 Scimitar entered into a Farm-In and Joint Venture Agreement with a Korean Consortium to jointly explore, drill and develop the Marree Uranium Project.
The Korean Consortium will be KORES Australia Marree Pty Ltd (a subsidiary of Korea Resources Corporation), Daewoo International Australia Pty Ltd (a subsidiary of Daewoo International Corporation) and Resources Investments (Marree) Pty Ltd (a subsidiary of LG International Corporation).
Under the agreement, the Korean Participants are entitled to earn up to an aggregate 50% interest in the joint venture by funding AUD$6,200,000 in expenditure on the Tenements within three years.
The South Korean government expects domestic demand for uranium will increase in the coming years. South Korea has 20 operational reactors and relies on atomic energy to generate 36 per cent of its electrical power. Seoul hopes to raise the figure to 59 per cent by 2030.
Scimitar has been appointed as manager of the Marree Project JV and will conduct exploration activities in accordance with the directions of a management committee comprising of representatives from each party.
Current Exploration
In August 2008, Cauldron completed a mud rotary drilling program at the Marree Project. The drilling program comprised 19 holes for 2,486 metres targeting Eyre and Namba Fm sands that are in contact with a basement fault system in the south eastern part of EL 3389. The program covered approximately 7km strike length of an interpreted sand sequence that deepens to the north adjacent to an east dipping basement fault structure associated with basement sourcing artesian springs.
The broadly spaced drilling on 800x1200m spacing intersected anomalous uranium in holes MAMR001, MAMR002 and MAMR006, including 1.75m at 51ppm eU3O8 within a weakly oxidised package of mudstone interbedded with gravels and sands below a lignitic horizon in MAMR002. Significant thicknesses of anomalous uranium up to 10x background were intersected over four kilometres.
The typical geology intersected by drilling comprises thin Quaternary alluvial-colluvial sediments, overlying 30-50m of oxidised and reduced clays and sandy clays of interpreted Namba Formation. Below this, 30-60m of variably oxidised and reduced lignitic quartz sands, gravels, mudstones and lignitic muds of the interpreted Eyre Formation were intersected, overlying the marine sediments of the Cretaceous Marree Subgroup.
Drilling results further strengthen the interpretation that uranium enriched oxidising ground waters are being sourced from the Mt Babbage Inlier to the south and that anomalous uranium has been deposited at redox boundaries associated with lignitic muds, sand and gravels as indicated by uranium intersections in MAMR002.
This new prospect area remains open and untested to the east and south east and establishes a significant uranium target for Palaeochannel style mineralisation. Analysis and interpretation of the drilling results will assist in identifying and prioritising further targets which will be the focus of future drilling programs within the Marree Project.
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Current Exploration >> |