Frewena Fable & Frewena Far East AMAGRAD GDC Program East Tennant, NT Final Report EL 31974, EL 32287, and EL 32293

Abstract

This Geophysics and Drilling Collaboration (GDC) grant was awarded funding of $100,000 to undertake detailed airborne magnetic-radiometric surveying over 1,182km2 in the emerging East Tennant region of the Northern Territory. Following innovative target generation work based on an unreported Bureau of Mineral Resources 1960's field observation of copper in granitic rocks, two standout exploration projects - the Frewena Fable and Frewena Far East Projects - have been developed by Inca Minerals that are considered highly prospective to host large scale Iron Ore Copper-Gold mineralisation. Exploration and generative work made use of regional datasets and various recently released survey results by Geoscience Australia and the Northern Territory Geological Survey that are specific to the East Tennant region. While these excellent datasets were effective for prioritising regional scale features, higher resolution magnetic-radiometric surveying was deemed by Inca to be a requirement to shift towards prospect scale vectoring that is hoped to ultimately lead to successful mineral resource discovery. Acquisition of detailed magnetic and radiometric data under this grant represents approximately 9% of the East Tennant region with an area of 1,182km2 surveyed over two blocks. Geophysical surveying was undertaken by MagSpec Airborne Surveys Pty Ltd between 7 November and 24 November 2020, and was based at the Barkly Homestead. Survey design and processing was undertaken by Resource Potentials Pty Ltd. Captured data has undergone initial processing and filtering to produce various images of magnetics, radiometrics, and local digital terrain models. Data resolution has been significantly increased by more than tenfold with image cell size, or pixels, now measuring c. 8m by 8m in size. The datasets will improve geological understanding of the region, and in particular the structural architecture. Additional, filtering and interpretation of detailed magnetics - outside the scope of this GDC grant - is ongoing at the time of writing and will be included in tenure annual reporting requirements for the individual projects. This work aims to delineate subtle, coherent bodies in the subsurface that may relate to large scale hydrothermal mineralisation and alteration. While the East Tennant region has rapidly emerged as a hot spot for potential Iron Ore Copper-Gold mineralisation, the vast size of the area dictates that exploration endeavours need to be efficient and systematic in their approach. The detailed magnetic-radiometric surveying completed under this GDC grant has produced high quality data to bridge the gap between regional and prospect scale vectoring.