The initial core drilling is taking place in the Cockroach East area which is one of four areas in the prospect that have been scheduled for drilling. The four targeted areas have been defined from high uranium radiometric readings in airborne and ground surveys.
All of these lie within the geological unit known as the Teapot Granite. The areas to be drilled have also been defined by surface rock chip sampling, with some 186 samples collected to date from the prospect area averaging 439ppm U3O8.
The Cockroach Dam Central covers an area of over 6sqkm and has returned values in rock chip samples of up to 0.536% U3O8. As of July 25, Hole CED2010-1 had reached a depth of 44.8mt. Coring has been continuous since the hole collar, on granite outcrop.
The secondary uranium mineral, uranophane, is visible in the host rock in the first few distance of the hole, but below that the rock is apparently unaltered granite with radiometric counts similar to the near surface material.
It is proposed to sample the Teapot Granite with up to five holes in this phase of exploration at Cockroach East. The nominal depth of these holes will be 150mt.
This work is designed to evaluate the grade and variability of uranium content and to provide samples of primary mineralization for initial mineragraphy. A further 10 holes are also planned in the first phase of activity at Cockroach Central, for a total of 1500mt of core drilling.
