Adelaide uranium miner secures fourth Eyre Peninsula licence
A new exploration licence has been granted to Kent Town-based miner Power Minerals as it ramps up its uranium activities on the Eyre Peninsula.
Drilling at Eyre Peninsula Kaolin-Halloysite Project. Photo: Power Minerals.
Adjacent to its existing Cungenga licence, Power Minerals has secured an exploration licence over a plot of land the company is hopeful contains uranium.
Dubbed Whichelby, or ‘EL6961’, the site hosts a paleo-channel that was last tested for uranium 40 years ago and “provides an extensive target area for Power’s uranium exploration plans” according to the company.
Power Minerals already has extensive interests in Eyre Peninsula uranium, and holds four licences in the region: two in the south and, following this latest approval, two in the north.
“The paleo-valley within EL6961 has not been extensively drilled,” Power Minerals said.
“Historically, CRA Exploration (CRAE, now Rio Tinto) explored some of this area for uranium and completed 24 wide-spread rotary mud drill holes during 1980 and 1981. The ability to measure the uranium concentration with this type of drilling was seen as being challenging at the time, and was very dependent on geophysical logging.
“CRAE believed the thin lignite seams discovered from its exploration indicated that suitable reducing conditions existed within channel system for deposition of uranium within the area. The channel is surrounded by high uranium-bearing Hiltaba Suite granites.”
A map detailing Power Minerals’ Eyre Peninsula interests. Via Power Minerals.
Power Minerals managing director Mena Habib said the channel was relatively well mapped, providing the company the opportunity for exploration.
“South Australia is very proactive in uranium exploration and mining, as demonstrated via the multiple uranium mines and projects in development within the state,” Habib said.
“While we continue to develop the Salta Lithium Project in Argentina as our flagship project, the company is keen to further explore the uranium potential of its Eyre Peninsula project area, and the strategic addition of the Whichelby licence substantially expands our contiguous uranium prospective ground position.
“We aim to uncover the uranium potential of our project area, which would add significant value to the project, at a time when demand for uranium continues to grow and there is appetite to bring new projects to market.”
SA has five approved uranium mines including at Olympic Dam.
