Annual Report GR043 EL 24291 and EL 26796 Beatrice Project, 4 July 2013 to 3 July 2014

Abstract

The Beatrice project comprises two exploration licences (EL 24291 and EL 26796), located in western Arnhem Land, approximately 250 km east of Darwin. The exploration licences were granted to Cameco Australia Pty. Ltd. (Cameco) on 04 July 2008. The Beatrice project tenements (EL 24291 and EL 26796) were granted amalgamated technical and expenditure reporting status by the Northern Territory Department of Resources (now the Department of Mines and Energy) on 9 November 2011. The approved and allocated group reporting ID is GR 043. The focus of Cameco's exploration strategy in Arnhem Land is the discovery of unconformity-related uranium deposits. The archetype unconformity-style uranium deposits are found in the Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan, Canada. The prospective nature of the Alligator Rivers region is demonstrated by the presence of nearby deposits at Ranger, Jabiluka, Koongarra, and the now depleted Nabarlek Mine. These major deposits appear to have a common position relative to the base of the Kombolgie Subgroup i.e. the Paleoproterozoic unconformity, or to its erosional margin, and serve here as exploration models. The Beatrice project is considered to be prospective for uranium mineralisation because of the proximity to the unconformity between metasedimentary packages and the overlying Kombolgie Subgroup, and association of chlorite and hematite altered breccia with fault structures. In addition, alternative mineralisation styles are also known to be present in the area, such as the shear-zone hosted mineralisation at the Beatrice Prospect. Desktop studies and research of historical data were the main focus of work in 2013. No fieldwork was completed and there were no site visits.