EL 23676 Warramana East First Annual Report

Abstract

Exploration Lease 23676 'Warramana East' covers an area of 99.15km2 and is located within the McArthur Basin near the Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory, approximately 44 km northwest of Borroloola, on the Mount Young 1:250,000 map sheet. Rio Tinto Exploration Pty Ltd was granted the lease on 25th June 2003 for a period of six years. During the first year of the lease, the Batten Trough Farm In and Joint Venture Agreement was entered into between Rio Tinto Exploration Pty Ltd (North Mining Limited and other Rio Tinto companies) and Anglo American Exploration (Australia) Pty Ltd. This Agreement was signed on 29 September 2003 and it has been lodged with the Department for registration. Under this Agreement, Anglo American Exploration (Australia) Pty Ltd is carrying out work on the licenses covered by the agreement. They now form part of a regional exploration project that Anglo American Exploration (Australia) Pty Ltd is undertaking in Joint Venture with Rio Tinto Exploration Pty Ltd (North Mining Limited) within the McArthur Basin. The other leases within the Project include EL7294, EL10103, EL10316, EL10317 and EL10329. There was little opportunity to undertake field work in 2003 due to the Joint Venture agreement with the Rio Tinto group being finalised late in the field season. 2004 field activities have been delayed until June due to an excessively long wet season; this field work had originally been planned for April. Since the Joint Venture agreement was finalised last year most activity has been associated with data gathering and review, geoscientific desktop studies, organising ground access, and minor reconnaissance work and logistical preparation for the current field season. The exploration target is sediment hosted massive sulphide Zn-Pb deposits of the HYC type. Rio Tinto Exploration's previous exploration results in the area had confirmed the favourable geological setting and Zn-Pb prospectivity of the subbasin. The sub-basin remains a quality 'grassroots' exploration target that Anglo American Exploration (Australia) Pty Ltd intends to test as part of their larger Batten Trough Project. Permission was received in March 2004 from the Director of Mines, Northern Territory Government, for drilling evaluation of the Project to commence.