King River Project EL 734 Annual report 2003

Abstract

This report describes program activities carried out during the 2003 field season on behalf of the Nadjinem Joint Venture, a joint venture between Cameco Australia Pty Ltd (Cameco) and the Nadjinem Aboriginal Corporation. EL 734 forms part of the King River Project and exploration is presently being conducted simultaneously with the adjoining King River tenements, EL 5890 and EL 5891. The focus of the exploration strategy is the discovery of unconformity-related uranium deposits. The nearby economic deposits at Ranger, Jabiluka, Koongarra and the now depleted Nabarlek Mine serve as models for this strategy. The presence of gold, palladium and platinum in these deposits plus the economic gold-platinum (plus uranium) resource at Coronation Hill in the South Alligator Valley, indicates an additional potential for this deposit style. The King River-style of mineralisation has geochemical similarities with these deposits. A RAB program was the only activity undertaken during the eighth year of tenure. The current year's program consisted of 50 holes (KRR987 to KRR1036) for a total of 1147m and was designed to extend coverage of the NIM6 airborne radiometric anomaly. Integration of the NIM6 chemistry (utilising Vertical Mapper) with the regional drilling results show that the anomaly is enclosed within a larger area of higher uranium background. There is however some incompleteness to this interpretation due to the lack of drilling to the west and north. Contouring of the individual uranium values shows that there is a continuation of the previously established trend. The variable chemistry and lithological characteristics of the rocks intersected suggest that there is some alteration, which could be related to the anomalous uranium occurrence. The presence of magnesium enrichment, which is related to chloritic alteration and the mafic-style chemistry (Cu, Co, Ni, V, Zn) indicative of ARUF mineralised environments adds weight to this argument.