Final surrender report for EL 27217 period 20 April 2009 to 11 August 2010

Abstract

EL 27217 covers an area of 1.14 sq km (1 block) and is located in East Arnhem Land. It was not an original application but was created out of the larger EL 24524 application. As this application is located within aboriginal freehold land, it was processed under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act. The site survey conducted by the Northern Land Council prior to grant resulted in creation of three non-contiguous consent lands. The largest of the three was retained as the main EL 24524, but new tenement numbers, namely EL 27216 and EL 27217, were given to the other two consent lands. All three were granted simultaneously on 20 April 2009. EL 27217, though very small in area, was accepted as part of a land package in the East Arnhem Land. The tenements are being explored for sediment-hosted supergene-enriched manganese within the Cretaceous rocks. The paleogeographic and stratigraphic setting of the Cretaceous rocks in East Arnhem Land are similar to that of Groote Eylandt, which hosts a world-class manganese deposit. Historical prospecting in East Arnhem Land undertaken during 1960's had identified several manganese occurrences namely Peter John River, Caledon Bay and Lake Evella among others. The original EL 24524 application, which included the current EL 27217, was applied to explore the manganese potential at the Peter John River occurrence. Desktop interpretation of geology and ground reconnaissance work revealed that EL 27217 was mainly covered with Proterozoic basement rocks and Quaternary coastal sediments. So it did not warrant any exploration per se and all the exploration efforts including airborne geophysical survey and drill testing were therefore confined to EL 24524 only. The result of airborne electromagnetic survey and subsequent drill testing at a number of targets in the main EL 24524 has completely downgraded the manganese potential of EL 27217. Therefore it was decided to surrender the tenement in the second year itself.