Davenport Project, Geophysical collaboration final report

Abstract

AREVA Resources Australia's (AREVA) Davenport Project targets palaeochannel hosted uranium mineralisation within Tertiary sediments in the Wiso and Georgina Basins. The objective of this proposed airborne electromagnetic (EM) survey on EL 28211, 28213 and 28214 is to investigate the distribution and geometry of Tertiary palaeochannels which will help focus future drill testing and understanding of the Tertiary geology. The exploration concept for the Davenport Project models uranium leaching from uraniferous rich basement of the Davenport and Aileron Provinces (source) into a palaeodrainage system (transport) with reduced Tertiary units potentially trapping uranium. Regionally, the area surrounding AREVA's tenements has had limited to no uranium focused exploration, especially the Wiso and Georgina Basins which have been more prominent with petroleum explorers. The sparse exploration and lack of stratigraphic data in the Wiso Basin has limited the understanding of basal structure, sediment composition and presence of palaeochannels. The EM survey has been designed in an orientation perpendicular to the estimated flow direction of palaeochannels which will hopefully map any conductive features in the upper stratigraphy, highlighting channel features. As the area is under explored, the results from this survey would increase the geological knowledge for both the Basins and from an exploration targeting perspective. Geotech survey completed in September 2013 has successfully map conductive features that can be interpreted as palaeochannels. Further work is still needed to finalize the modeling of the conductive objects.