Final surrender report for EL 23393

Abstract

The Arunta Project is located approximately 250km NNW of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. The North Arunta Province is dominated by a series of sulphidic Palaeoproterozoic sedimentary sequences intruded by granite plutons and mafic sills. Quaternary and Tertiary cover conceals large areas of bedrock in the area however the region has seen exploration for a variety of commodities including gold, base metals, iron ore, uranium and diamonds. Work by Proto Resources & Investments Ltd on EL23393 has focussed the prospectivity of priority GEOTEM targets within the licence area. However due to financial considerations the licence is to be surrendered. The Arunta Province has been explored for gold, uranium, rare earths and base metals by various companies. The province is considered prospective for a number of base metal mineralisation styles from Proterozoic stratabound Cu-Pb-Zn to skarn-related Cu-Au and Pb-Zn-Cu and acid volcanic Cu-Pb-Zn. The province hosts a number of significant base metals deposits including; Jervois 6.1Mt @ 2.1% Cu, Prospect D 3.2Mt @ 0.6% Cu & 0.2% Ni, Oonagalabi 25Mt @ 0.5% Cu & 1% Zn and Home of Bullion 0.13Mt @ 7.1% Cu, 5% Zn & 2% Pb. The area also hosts a number of sub-economic occurrences of gold, tin, tungsten, tantalum, mica, nickel, chromite and semi-precious stones. In terms of the exploration within EL23393, Falconbridge acquired airborne GEOTEM data over the eastern half of the tenement in 2003 just prior to the transfer of the licence to Discovery Nickel Ltd (Discovery). Following acquisition Discovery contracted Quantec Geoscience in 2004 to acquire moving-loop EM over four priority targets identified from the GEOTEM data. Unfortunately all of the targets were found to be attributable to conductive overburden and not bedrock conductors. Since the acquisition of the licence by Proto in October 2006 review of the previous geophysical data has been undertaken with GeoDiscovery Group as the consultant geophysicist. This has confirmed the presence of a number of target areas which require moving-loop EM surveys to confirm a bedrock source however no detailed planning occurred and hence no data is available regarding these target areas. A digital copy of the 2003 Falconbridge airborne GEOTEM/magnetic survey Acquisition and Processing Report is included. Despite the presence of a number of prospective airborne EM targets, financial considerations require that Proto surrender EL23393.