Final report on EL 26948 Kiana, for the 12 month period 2 May 2009 to 1 May 2010

Abstract

EL 26948 is located approximately 270km north of the Barkly Roadhouse along the Tablelands Highway and then 70km east along Kiana Access Road. The EL granted consists of 77 sub blocks covering an area of approximately 250sq.km. The tenement was granted to Jacaranda Minerals Pty Ltd (JML) and Minerals Australia Pty Ltd (MAPL) on 1 May 2009 for a term of 5 years. The joint holders are parties to the Jacaranda Alliance Joint Venture which is managed by Hancock Exploration Management Services Pty Ltd (HEMS). In 2002, Conarco Minerals Pty Ltd (Conarco), the parent company of JML, conducted a reconnaissance geochemical survey along the Tablelands Highway approximately 20km to the east of EL 26948 and covering the same geological formations occurring in EL 26948. Geochemically anomalous molybdenum values were obtained from samples site located near Bostock Bore on the Walhallow 1:250,000 map sheet area. A tenement (EL 25917) was granted to Conarco covering 500 blocks. During a helicopter reconnaissance of EL 25917 in 2008, circular areas of white outcrop were noted a short distance to the east of the eastern boundary of EL 25917. A brief examination of the area found numerous round nodules up to 10 cm. in diameter of crystalline baryte. The geology of the area was very similar to the EL 25917. An EL application was lodged with the intention of exploring for minerals possible associated with the occurrence of baryte and for uranium, molybdenum and vanadium, the target minerals in EL 25917. Work completed by the JV in EL 26948 during 2009-2010 involved a seven day ground reconnaissance of EL 26948. Geochemical samples were taken on a 9 kilometer square grid over the entire tenement. Rough, inaccessible terrain precluded the collection of 8 samples. A total of 17 soil samples were collected and analysed for a suite of 21 elements. No anomalous barium, uranium, molybdenum or vanadium values were found from this geochemical and geological survey. The remaining elements analysed also showed only background levels. 2009 involved; research of historical records, research of academic papers, research of previous open file company exploration, interpretation of Geoscience Australia regional aeromagnetic and radiometric survey data and laboratory analyses of soil geochemical samples for Au, Pt, Pd, U, Mo, V, Th, Ag, Pb, W, Co, Cu, Ni, Zn, Ti, Sc, P, Ca, Fe, La, Ce. All samples returned a range of concentrations from below average to average abundance for all elements assayed. Rock samples analyses showed results consistent with the reported average abundance in the recorded lithologies with no obviously anomalous results. There are three dominant regolith profiles that cover 95% of the tenement; red-brown fine to medium grained transported quartzose sands; residual grey-brown to yellowbrown soils some with high percentages of lateritic pebbles derived from the weathering of Cretaceous sediments, and the residual friable black soils that formed over the Cretaceous massive grey calcareous siltstones. Baryte nodules occurring in limonitic siltstones within the Cretaceous grey siltstone were a function of surface weathering and concentration. No other concentrations of sulphides or oxides were noted. Geochemical analyses of soils has shown that over a variety of surface environments and contacts there were no elemental values that exceeded general background levels for the given rock types and their residual soils. Sampling on major structural dislocations failed to find any elemental concentrations. It is recommended that EL 26948 should be relinquished.