Southern Uranium has signed a joint venture agreement to acquire a majority interest in exploration license (EL) 3922, extending the company’s exploration reach in South Australia from its Ridgeback project to a prospective area adjoining the Moonta mining field.
Southern Uranium will pay Destiny Stone Australia (Destiny Stone) AUD15,000 for an 85% legal and beneficial interest in all minerals except dimension stone and industrial minerals which shall remain 100% held by Destiny Stone.
The Webling Bay license area shares a similar structural and gravity setting to Southern Uranium’s high priority Ridgeback project on the northern Yorke Peninsula and has strong iron oxide copper gold uranium (IOCGU) discovery potential.
The purchase remains subject to application to the South Australian Government for approval of the transfer of the 85% interest to Southern Uranium and notification of the release of all encumbrances affecting the tenement.
Southern Uranium will manage the exploration on behalf of the joint venture partners. Destiny Stone will be free-carried for its 15% interest in all minerals except dimension stone and industrial minerals until a decision to mine is made on completion of a Bankable Feasibility Study.
John Anderson, managing director of Southern Uranium, said: “This joint venture enables Southern Uranium to extend its exploration for IOCGU deposits from our high-priority Ridgeback project to other prospective areas adjoining the historic Moonta mining field.”
The Webling Bay area is attractive to Southern Uranium as it sits over the covered northeasterly extensions of the Moonta field at the intersection with a northwest structure interpreted as a key control on the Ridgeback targets.
The company said that the geological setting of the Webling Bay area was analogous to the position of the Ridgeback targets on the northeasterly Pine Point Fault Zone of copper and uranium deposits.
Mr Anderson added: “At Webling Bay, valuable past drilling by the Mines Department and by other explorers intersected very prospective alteration and breccias indicative of nearby IOCGU potential.
“The drilling also showed the cover there is relatively thin at 20mt to 150mt in thickness. As encountered at Ridgeback, the past gravity surveying is patchy but encouraging, with indicative gravity anomalies that may represent haematite-hosted IOCGU targets.”
The company has proposed to cover the exploration license area with detailed gravity surveying for such targets. Soil geochemical sampling will also be undertaken in this thinly covered part of the Moonta district.