MA 455 and MA 456 Coxco Valley and Amelia South Annual Technical Report for the period 21 August 2011 to 20 August 2012

Abstract

MA's 455-456 are situated in the north-east of the Northern Territory, 750 kilometres southeast of Darwin, approximately 100 kilometres south of the Gulf of Carpentaria and within the McArthur River Station pastoral lease. This report summarises exploration activities on tenements MA 455 and 456 and also their precursor tenements. Applications for AN's 455-457, submitted by McArthur River Mining Pty Ltd in September 1996, were driven by statutory relinquishment requirements on AN 366, the departure of MIM Exploration from the Northern Territory and the perception that the ground should be held. These AN's were formerly granted on 21st August, 2006 after considerable delay due to an intervening native title moratorium on the granting of exploration licences. In response to recommendations from the Department of Resources, grid shift reductions together with further statutory relinquishment requirements were carried out on AN 455 and AN 456 during 2010. Tenements AN 455 and AN 456 were renamed MA 455 and MA 456 in 2012. The critical shortage of technical staff experienced at McArthur River Mining (MRM) during much of the reporting period led to the services of a geological consultant (familiar with the metallogenic setting of the lease area) being employed to complete a desk-based, data recovery compilation of all historical CEC and MIMEX open file reports and other readily available data. Recruitment late in the reporting period, equipped MRM with the resources required to recommence exploration activities. MRM Geologists initiated a review of historical data obtained from the compilation project, commenced the design of a regional database, carried out field reconnaissance mapping and took six rock chip samples from areas of interest (results pending).