Eclipse Metals (ASX:EPM) has reached a landmark with Traditional Owners giving their consent for the Northern Land Council to enter into negotiations on their behalf.
This facilitates an exploration agreement that will allow the company to commence exploration over the Devil’s Elbow uranium-gold project and surrounding areas in the Northern Territory.
Once the final exploration agreement is reached, the Northern Land Council will present all terms and conditions of the agreement to the Traditional Owners for a decision during the final on-country meeting.
Previous shallow trenching yielded high grade uranium assays including 3.2% U3O8, 3.7% U3O8, 4.40% U3O8 and 5.8% U3O8 as well as 38.1 grams per tonne gold and 28.02g/t palladium.
Devil’s Elbow is hosted within the world class Alligator Rivers Uranium Field and is located about 41 kilometres southeast of the worked-out Nabarlek Uranium Mine which produced 12,000 tonnes of uranium oxide from 568,402 tonnes of ore with a grade of 1.95% U3O8.
The prospect lies within a group of four tenements with a total area of 1,239 square kilometres known as the West Arnhem Project.
Data Review
In January 2015, the company carried out an extensive data review over the Liverpool uranium projects, specifically over the Devil’s Elbow.
This highlighted strong gravity and radiometric anomalies which remain poorly tested with further areas outlined as “standout” exploration targets.
Highlights from the review include:
- Uranerz discovered the Devil's Elbow uranium-gold-palladium prospect, located within ELA27584, during a regional radiometric survey with shallow trenching yielding the high grade uranium assays;
- Strongly anomalous gravity and radiometric zones were delineated north-northwest and south of the main uranium mineralised area with numerous untested radiometric anomalies to the south-west in the EL (hosted within the Nungbalgarri Volcanic Member) and in the central portion of the EL (hosted within the Oenpelli Dolerite) warranting further ground exploration;
-Rock Chip results from the Ferricrete Anomaly yielded strong uranium assays of 0.762% U, 0.372% U, 0.364% U and 0.362% U. Highest total counts are in excess of 15,550cps;
- Ground investigation over the Devil’s Elbow area found radioactive volcanic boulders with counts up to 24,100cps. Samples taken from the radioactive volcanic boulders assayed 0.172% U), 0.121% U with a highest value of 0.33% U; and
- TEMPEST EM Survey has indicated several long zones of possible intense alteration along the Hogs Back and Ranger fault zones. The structural significance of these high priority exploration targets is presently unknown.
Devil’s Elbow has been shown to contain numerous clusters of first and second order radiometric anomalies in conjunction with major structural target areas which have never been investigated.
Prospects delineated by previous exploration remain poorly tested within the tenement area and the surrounding zones around the Ranger Fault.
There also are abundant untested radiometric anomalies potentially hosting uranium mineralisation which have never been tested.
Eclipse has delineated two structural targets which could hold structurally controlled uranium mineralisation including the Hogs Back and Ranger Fault Zones with 11.2 kilometres of untested strike.
In the southern portion of the tenement there are strong untested radiometric anomalies with an area of 5 kilometres by 2 kilometres.
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