LOCATION AND ACCESS

The Tanami Uranium Project covers a group of tenement applications 800km northwest of Alice Springs (Figure 1) in the Tanami Province and Victoria Basin. Access to this remote region is via the Tanami Highway from Alice Springs or Halls Creek, or the Lajamanu Road from Darwin. Apart from the Victoria Basin tenements, which are on pastoral land, the remaining tenements are within Aboriginal freehold (ALRA affected) land. Toro has been able to develop a good relationship with the Aboriginal stakeholders and are advancing an exploration agreement.

Figure 1:  Location of Tanami Project tenements.

GEOLOGICAL SETTING

 
This project lies within the Tanami region of the Northern Territory (Figure 2). Basement is comprised largely of Palaeoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic metasedimentary and granitic rocks assigned to the Tanami Group, including the Killi Killi Formation. It also includes a large dome of older granites and gneisses assigned to the Archaean, the Browns Range Dome. Basement rocks are unconformably overlain by the flat-lying Mesoproterozoic Birrindudu Basin, a correlate of the McArthur Basin in the Top End. This situation is analogous with the Alligator River uranium field in the northern part of the Northern Territory, which hosts the world-class Ranger, Jabiluka and Nabarlek uranium deposits, the former of which has been in production since 1985. Locally, the Tanami Province rocks are overlain by a veneer of Tertiary to Recent clastics.

Figure 2: Geological setting of the Tanami Project.

PREVIOUS EXPLORATION

Historic exploration data indicates that the Tanami Province has the correct attributes to host ‘unconformity style’ uranium mineralisation and there are numerous small shows in the area, including Kill Killi, The Don, Oracle and Mt Mansbridge prospects. This uranium mineralisation is present as secondary minerals within various lithologies, including sandstone of the Birrindudu Basin. Exploration has been restricted to surface hard rock sampling and little is known about the subsurface due to a distinct lack of drilling. In addition, most explorers have focussed on gold exploration and have ignored or avoided the uranium potential due to stakeholder concerns. The area remains highly underexplored and has the potential to host a world-class deposit. Cameco and Areva both hold ground in the region, on the Western Australian side of the border. In that area, Toro has a JV with Cameco on Toro’s Birrindudu project (see separate project description). Historically, exploration for gold has been widespread in this project area, and the world-class Callie gold deposit is now in production (Figure 1). Recent production also took place at the Tanami and Groundrush gold deposits. Toro’s tenements therefore also have some potential for gold.

EXPLORATION OBJECTIVES

After reviewing of the available data and reports, Toro composed the following objectives for this project:

·         Determine the likelihood of economic ‘unconformity’ uranium mineralisation at or near to the Palaeoproterozoic-Mesoproterozoic unconformity between Tanami Group and Birrindudu Basin.

·         Identify potential for younger palaeochannel sediments and determine if there is reduced facies or evidence of redox changes.

·         Develop tools to assist in the exploration for blind graphite-associated uranium deposits under more than 100m of cover.

EXPLORATION TIMELINE

No tenements are granted in this project area as yet, as a requirement of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (“ALRA”) is that an authorised exploration and mining agreement be in place prior to grant. Toro is advancing a draft exploration agreement with traditional owners via their representative body, the Central Land Council, and we are confident that exploration will commence in 2011. Some tenements are advanced sufficiently that drilling may proceed immediately upon grant, while other require acquisition of airborne geophysical data.