EL 26376 Mueller Creek Annual and final report 16 April 2008 to 29 April 2013

Abstract

NuPower carried out an airborne electromagnetic (AEM) survey in 2008 during the first year that covered the western half of the tenement as part of a larger survey of NuPower's tenements in the Aileron region, designed to explore for buried palaeochannels at the base of and within the Cainozoic sedimentary package as potential hosts for secondary uranium. A total of 125.8 line kilometres was flown here at 1km line spacing at a nominal terrain clearance of 120m. Concurrently, water from 2 station stock water bores was sampled and assayed for a suite of major and trace elements the results of which were expected to assist with targeting potential sites of uranium accumulation within the palaeochannel systems. The AEM survey results indicated that the technique was very successful, revealing that the Tertiary palaeodrainage system is far more extensive and better developed than previously thought. It indicates that the Ti-Tree Basin infills a deep structural feature developed in two NW-SE trending grabens immediately to the northeast of the Ti-Tree Fault and that part of these structures lies beneath the western part of Mueller Creek. The western part is therefore considered prospective for secondary uranium mineralisation because reduced sediments, required for the precipitation of uranium from groundwater, are likely to be present here. NuPower also contributed to the NTGS Central Australia Gravity Survey (CAGS) over the Central Arunta region that included EL 26376 to acquire higher quality data for regional basement interpretation. There was no on-ground exploration work during Year 2. In Year 3 airborne radiometric anomalies were traversed and found to be due to probable monazite in outcropping high grade metamorphic rocks and to monazite concentrations in alluvial sand derived from the metamorphics. Magnetic anomalies in the EL were considered as possible targets for rare earth mineralization. There was no on-ground exploration work during Years 4 and 5. The tenement was relinquished because NuPower is no longer exploring for paleo-channel uranium. The magnetic anomalies in the area are now considered to be almost certainly due to magnetic mafic granulite.