Report on Areas Relinquished From EL 31757 In June 2022.

Abstract

This report covers work done on areas relinquished in June 2022 from EL 31757 at the end of Year 4 of Asian Minerals Pty Ltd's East Tanami Project, covering ELs 23602, 23603, 23780, 31757, 31758, and 31759. Amalgamated reporting has been granted on these titles, as GR499. The Project Area lies entirely on the lands of the Karlantijpa North Aboriginal Land Trust. An Exploration Deed under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (1976) has been negotiated with CLC on behalf of the Traditional Owners. The area was originally applied for by Asian Minerals in 2002, and the titles were granted by NT DPIR in early March 2018. The Project Area originally covered a total of 4,255.1km2. Following the reductions, totalling 1,241km2 made in June 2022, the total area now covered by the project is about 2,979km2. The area covered by this report 166.18 km2. Surface access to the area is challenging as there were no roads or tracks into the Project Area, which is largely covered by sand dunes stabilised by spinifex and scrub. It is necessary to have the exploration programme approved and the sites to be worked on and the access routes to these must be cleared by Traditional Owners in advance of field activities. This process is time consuming and expensive, and as a result, no field work has been possible in this relinquished area. A broad- spaced airborne EM (AEM) survey of the entire project area involving 1,344line km of AEM survey, on line spacings of 4.8km east- west, with infill of an area of interest mostly in EL 31759 on 1.2km spacings north- south was completed in Year 2 of the Project. Funding under the NTGS Drilling and Geophysical Collaborations Programme Round 12 assisted with the $260,000+ programme, which was incorporated into Geoscience Australia's (GA's) Exploring For The Future (EFTF) program, a TEMPEST Airborne Electromagnetic (AEM) Survey executed by CGG Aviation (Australia) Pty Ltd on behalf of GA. This information was publicly released at the conclusion of the project and is not reported here. The work, along with some subsequent reprocessing commissioned by Asian Minerals, has been reported as 'FINAL REPORT GEOPHYSICS COLLABORATION for EAST TANAMI PROJECT AEM SURVEY, 2019: EL 23602, EL 23603, EL 23780, EL 31757, EL 31758, EL 31759' and is already released as an NTGS Open File Report. Subsequent activities relevant to the relinquished areas are a detailed regolith mapping exercise conducted using remotely sensed data by Mr Barry Cotton in 2022, and an airborne Mag-Rad survey on 200m line spacing that covered a large part of the Project Area, but not the relinquished part of EL 23780. Ongoing negotiations continue with CLC to ensure the site clearances are undertaken as soon as possible. We hope that the process will become more streamlined with practice, and that the holding costs of the titles can be reduced by reduction of the ground held.