Partial surrender report EL 27197 for the period 26 October 2009 to 25 October 2011

Abstract

This Partial Surrender Report is for the period 26 October 2009 to 25 October 2011. The Barkly Project, located approximately 66km east of Tennant Creek, is a sub-project of Vale's Georgina Phosphate Exploration Project and covers Cambrian rocks of the Georgina Basin. The rocks of the Georgina Basin range in age from Late Proterozoic to Early Palaeozoic. Outcrop within Barkly is limited with much of the basement geology concealed beneath Tertiary and Quaternary sediments. Phosphate exploration work on the relinquished area of EL 27197 comprised: open file literature review; acquisition and reprocessing of geophysical data; acquisition of NRETAS environmental data; regional water bore analysis; helicopter-supported field mapping; collection and analysis of 32 rock chip samples; flora and fauna desktop study report; in-house depth to basement gravity modelling; a regional geophysical basin modelling study by Mira Geoscience; and line clearing and reconnaissance Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling (3 holes VGRC015-017 for 480m and 160 composite samples). The surrendered area was relinquished due to a lack of priority phosphate targets. The best result was 0.86% P (1.95% P2O5) from 168-171m in VGRC017.