Annual report for EL 23683 and EL 23685, Sylvester Project, 17 June 2006 to 16 June 2007

Abstract

The Sylvester project is located in the Barkly Tablelands of the Northern Territory, 220km northeast of Tennant Creek and 120km north of the Barkly Homestead Roadhouse. The Tablelands Highway passes through the centre of the area. The project consists of two exploration licences: EL 23683 Lower Sylvester and EL 23685 North Sylvester. The area was identified as conceptual target area based on proprietary methods and modelling conducted by Paradigm Geoscience Pty Ltd. A review of previous exploration work confirmed the prospectivity of the area with a large number of microdiamonds reported by previous explorers. While the diffuse spread of microdiamonds over much of the NT has been well described, the Sylvester area is characterised by microdiamond abundances well above the general background level. The microdiamonds are spread over an area of approximately 3000km2 and there is no obvious centre/s to the anomaly, presumably due to the surficial processes, poor drainage and large areas of shallow cover. In order to characterise the microdiamonds found in the Sylvester region, the company compiled previous diamond exploration data over an area of 10,000km2 and then reviewed, classified and tabulated descriptions of all microdiamonds described. When the microdiamonds are classified into three simple categories (common, rare and very rare types), it becomes evident that there is a cluster of rare/very rare types in the centre of the area, surrounding EL 23685. This provides good evidence for a local source of the diamonds and confirms the prospectivity of the area. Reconnaissance exploration conducted during the previous period led to the conclusion that standard surface exploration methods would not be effective in tracing the microdiamonds to their source. During Year 4 (Reported) of the licence shallow drilling of alluvial channels was completed with a relatively large volume of sample collected for heavy mineral analysis and geochemistry.