Final surrender report for EL 24357

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 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 EL24357 has highlighted the prospectivity of the licence area. However, for reasons related to the current market downturn the licence is to be surrendered. The Arunta Province has been explored for gold, uranium, rare earths and base metals by various companies (Table 2). 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 EL24357, Discovery acquired the licence as they interpreted the eastern strike extension of those lithologies containing the mineralised B1 target on EL23392 to be present below the cover. In the time since Proto acquired the Arunta Project from Discovery in late 2006 they have reviewed the open file magnetic and geological data to confirm the prospectivity of the central southeastern oriented portion of the licence. No ground work has as yet been completed on the licence. No exploration has been completed during the current period of tenure further to the initial desktop review of the open file data. Due to financial market considerations Proto has decided to surrender EL24357.