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Marmota locks in program to drill down on SA uranium
Brought to you by BULLS N’ BEARS
By Craig Nolan
A local uranium expert has delivered the design of the drill program that will allow Marmota to explore the potential of its Yolanda prospect in South Australia – right next to $1.9 billion ASX-listed Boss Energy’s recently-commissioned Honeymoon mine.
Yolanda is one of three prospective targets within the company’s 100 per cent-owned Junction Dam project that sits 50km west of the historic mining town of Broken Hill. Junction Dam is directly adjacent to Boss’ Honeymoon mine that hosts a resource of 36 million pounds at 660 parts per million uranium.
Marmota is set to home in on the uranium at its Yolanda target.
Management says Indepth Geological Services uranium expert Mark Couzens has designed a 72-hole drill-program for the Yolanda prospect after he completed a full technical analysis of the mineralisation at the project. Yolanda’s exploration target is more than 8km long and 1km wide and sits to the south of Marmota’s Saffron resource of 5.4 million pounds at a solid 557ppm uranium oxide.
The resource falls within the same Yarramba paleochannel as the Honeymoon mine.
‘The full extent of uranium mineralisation at Yolanda remains untested to date.’
Marmota executive chairman Dr Colin Rose
The Junction Dam tenement bookends both sides of the Yarramba paleochannel that contains Boss’ resource, with it splitting into two separate branches towards the middle of Yolanda. A basement high is shown on a state gravity image.
Marmota says downhole logging from previous drilling shows both branches to be mineralised, with high-grade uranium contained within the floodplains on the sides of the paleochannel and in the weathered sandstone basement nearby. Interestingly, mineralisation identified in the basement from previous drilling appears to be unique to Yolanda, as it was not encountered at either Saffron or Bridget to the north.
Marmota executive chairman Dr Colin Rose said: “The full extent of uranium mineralisation at Yolanda remains untested to date. The identification that a huge 8km of the main Eyre Formation paleochannel runs through the Yolanda Prospect makes this Marmota’s THIRD exciting uranium exploration target at Junction Dam to be tested by 75 drill holes.”
The company believes there is a strong possibility of a substantial volume of uranium-rich fluid having passed through the paleochannel and entered into the sandstone on the edges, with uranium precipitating in the basement as a result.
The highest grades recorded at Yolanda are associated with floodplains on the edges of the main paleochannel, with a peak of 1258ppm uranium oxide and 3m at 646ppm from 124.2m.
The 75-hole program will test two target areas using a rotary-mud rig with downhole geophysical probes. It will allow for flexibility to adapt based on drilling as it progresses.
Marmota says it anticipates drilling 63 holes at target one, with a further 12 holes at target two. It says previous drilling at Yolanda missed the paleochannel and with only relatively few holes drilled in the area, it is considered to be untested.
The company believes there is significant scope to grow the resource at Junction Dam, with an exploration target on the project of between 22 million pounds and 33 million pounds, ranging in grade expectations from 400ppm to 700ppm.
Its promising Jasons prospect sits in the north-west corner of Junction Dam, with the area extending into Boss’ own Jason’s deposit, which is part of the Honeymoon project. A new high-priority target has been identified on the Marmota side of the Jasons prospect based on a gravity survey.
Encouragingly, Boss’ highest resource grades come from its Jason’s deposit, with a uranium resource of 10.7 million pounds at 790ppm.
Marmota’s flagship project is its Aurora Tank gold discovery, with several outstanding intersections returning stunning hits of more than 100 grams per tonne gold in 1m intersections. The company believes there is tremendous potential for a low-cost, open-pit development at Aurora Tank.
The company also owns 100 per cent of the Western Gawler Craton project that contains two gold deposits – Typhoon and Monsoon –which feature JORC resources.
Marmota’s decision to focus on gold and uranium, two of this year’s big winners in terms of commodity price appreciation, may well hold it in good stead going forward.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au