Hampered by wet weather earlier in the year and access to drilling equipment, AuKing Mining Ltd (ASX:AKN) has finally kicked off the planned exploration at its Mkuju Uranium Project in southern Tanzania.
The initial 3,000-metre drilling and associated soil sampling program will target parts of a large radiometric anomalous zone adjacent to the world-class Russian-owned Nyota Uranium Project.
AuKing holds six contiguous prospecting licences (PLs) and one near-granted PL application covering 730 square kilometres in the Mkuju region, about 470 kilometres southwest of Dar es Salaam.
The program will take two months to complete, during which the company plans to collect 400 soil samples as well as drill 150 auger holes with an estimated average depth of 20 metres per hole.
The ASX-lister has budgeted $200,000 for the program.
"High expectations"
“We are pleased to finally be conducting our initial exploration program at Mkuju,” AuKing chief executive officer Paul Williams said.
“Due to its proximity to the world-class Nyota Uranium Project and based on historical exploration on our ground, we have high expectations for strong results from this program – thereby establishing Mkuju as a significant extension of the already known Nyota uranium resources.
“Our initial focus will be around near-surface soil sampling and auger drilling and pending results from these initial activities, go back in with deeper RC drilling later in the year.”
Mkuju project location.
What they know so far
The Mkuju area was identified as prospective for uranium during reconnaissance exploration by the German group Uranerzbergbau GmbH between 1978 and 1982.
AuKing’s Mkuju project is immediately southeast of the Nyota Uranium Project, previously the primary focus of exploration by Mantra Resources Ltd, a former ASX-listed company acquired by the Russian group ARMZ in an A$1.16 billion takeover in 2011.
Mantra completed a high-resolution helicopter-borne radiometric survey over the entire Mkuju River Project area in mid-2007, which resulted in the identification of several uranium anomalies.
Field evaluation of a number of the targets returned visible uranium mineralisation in trenches.
The historical MRU mapping confirmed the radiometric anomalism to be associated with two linear structural corridors, with a secondary uranium mineralisation along preferred structural zones.
This potential 'remobilised' uranium and testing of high-grade zones will be the focus of AuKing’s initial drilling program.
The exploration team will also conduct a series of XRF field measurements on the soil and auger drilling samples, prior to their dispatch to the laboratory for assaying.
The explorer intends to make public the initial XRF results while awaiting for detailed assays to be completed 2-3 months later.