Partial relinquishment report for EL 24724 Johanssen Range for the period ending 15 January 2009

Abstract

The Lucy Creek Project comprises three tenements, EL 24716 Lucy Creek, EL 24724, Johanssen Range and EL 10215 Jervois. These licenses were applied for and granted to Arafura Resources NL in December 2005. Two licenses, Lucy Creek and Johanssen Range, were transferred to NuPower Resources Ltd during the demerger by Arafura of certain uranium assets into the new company. Arafura retained Jervois but transferred the rights to uranium to NuPower. Arafura's interest in these tenements, prior to the demerger, included the potential for orthomagmatic Fe-Ti-V, Ni-Cu and Pt-Pd-Au and other types of mineralisation associated with mafic intrusions of the Arunta block, tungsten, molybdenum, other base metal and gold mineralisation in the Bonya Schist and equivalent rocks of the Arunta, Mary Kathleen style or iron-oxide copper gold related mineralisation in the Arunta Block, various styles of uranium mineralisation including sandstone and unconformity related styles in the Georgina Basin, sediment-hosted MVT, base metal or phosphate mineralisation in the Georgina Basin and a range of other commodities associated with intrusives such as carbonatites, kimberlites and pegmatites. The uranium interest was based on the 2004 NTGS airborne radiometric data that contains a large uranium anomaly in the western Jervois Range, mostly within EL2 4716 but extending into the adjacent EL 10215. Previous exploration here by CRA for unconformity U-Cu-P mineralisation in the mid 1990's tested the lateral undercover extensions of the Mount Baldwin/Arthur Creek Formations and while uranium results were disappointing they intersected significant intervals of phosphate mineralisation. Less significant radiometric anomalies in the Johanssen Range license include a prominent short wavelength high amplitude uranium-thorium anomaly associated with the Eurowie Sandstone Member of the Arrinthrunga Formation in Arrinthrunga Creek, several small uranium-thorium anomalies associated with the unconformity between the Mt Baldwin Formation and Arthur Creek Formation in a similar stratigraphic position to the radiometric anomaly at Lucy Creek and small isolated anomalies elsewhere in the Arrinthrunga Formation. The geology of Johanssen Range comprises mostly cover sediments of the Georgina Basin where they outcrop in the Johanssen Range, overlying basement rocks Arunta Block Bonya Schist preserved in the south. The Early Proterozoic Bonya Schist is the oldest formation here confined to the southern parts of the area where it overlies the Mascotte Gneiss Complex. The Schist comprises mostly muscovite and two-micas schists derived from mostly pelitic, psammopelitic and calcareous metasedimentary rocks, metamorphosed to upper greenschist to lower amphibolite facies. Various Proterozoic granites intrude the Bonya Schist, including foliated, locally porphyritic, muscovite granite on the southern side of the Johanssen Range. The Schist is also intruded by several different phases of Samarkand Pegmatite. The earliest sediments of the Georgina Basin represented here are thin to thickly bedded, fine to coarse grained, quartz arenite of the Grants Bluff Formation in the eastern flanks of the Johanssen Range. This is overlain by micaceous, very thin to very thickly bedded, siltstone, laminated mudstone and medium grained quartz arenite of the Elkera Formation. Mild tectonism followed the Elkera Formation so that it is overlain disconformably by the Mount Baldwin Formation comprising thin to very thickly bedded, cross bedded, fine-medium grained, quartz arenite forming prominent ridges in the range. Red Heart Dolostone disconformably overlies Mount Baldwin Formation and consists of basal sandstone grading upwards through silty shale to a white dolostone-silty dolostone unit. This is overlain by a silty sandstone to siltstone unit that is topped by a limestone and dolostone unit. This formation, containing phosphorite, outcrops along the base of the eastern flank of the Jervois Range, and is locally indurated by Tertiary laterite and silcrete, but may be absent along the northern flank of the Johanssen Range where Arthur Creek Formation appears to rest directly on Mount Baldwin Formation. Arthur Creek Formation overlies Red Heart Dolostone (and Mount Baldwin Formation where Red Heart Dolostone is absent). It contains a lower sequence of fossiliferous, organic-rich, laminated, pyritic, calcareous siltstone the upper part of which contains very thick limestone beds, overlain by calcareous quartz arenite to quartzose limestone. Arrinthrunga Formation conformably overlies Arthur Creek Formation in the northwestern part of the license area containing a thick well bedded sequence of dolostone and limestone with minor siliclastic rocks. One of the lithofacies of the Arrinthrunga Formation, the Eurowie Sandstone Membe, is the youngest formation of the Georgina Basin preserved here. The Arthur Creek and Arrinthrunga Formations underlie most of the central and northern parts of the project area but are covered extensively with Quaternary alluvium from Arthur Creek and its tributaries. Copper and tungsten have been prospected and mined at Green Hoard, Damascus, Wells, Ashmara, Xanten, City of Medina, Jericho, Tashkent, Bonya, White Violet, Ultra Violet, Samarkand, Petra, Kings Legend, Johanssen's Pillar and other unnamed occurrences from the Bonya Schist and associated units, in the Bonya Hills region, south of Johanssen Range. In Year 1 Arafura Resources completed an RC drilling program at Lucy Creek, in EL 24716 and the adjacent EL 10215 in November 2006 to test for uranium mineralisation associated with a prominent airborne radiometric anomaly in the Red Heart Dolostone. There was no work on Johanssen Range due to the demerger process. In Year 2 following the demerger of uranium assets from Arafura to NuPower, NuPower completed preliminary metallurgical testwork of two composite samples to determine the suitability of this material to heap leach recovery of uranium from a low grade resource. There was no work on Johanssen Range due to delays with the metallurgical work and the lack of suitable geologists. In Year 3 reconnaissance identified low grade phosphorite mineralisation in Arthur Creek Formation on Johanssen Range but did not locate Red Heart Dolostone for sampling. Attempts to access a prominent radiometric anomaly in a remote area were unsuccessful. There was no reconnaissance in the areas relinquished. Bore waters were sampled but there were none from the areas relinquished. Sixteen blocks were relinquished on 15th January 2009, reducing the license area to 80 blocks covering 253.68 square kilometres. These included areas of Arrinthrunga Formation and Bonya Schist that were considered not prospective for uranium or phosphate. Although NuPower carried out limited reconnaissance geological mapping, rock chip sampling and bore water sampling on Johanssen Range, there was no work on the areas relinquished. This was because these areas were considered not prospective for uranium or phosphate.