NORTHERN TERRITORY URANIUM & RARE EARTH PROJECT
Denison ELA 27181 (Application)
The Denison project covers 422 square kilometres in the Arunta Block some 250km north west of Alice Springs. There are four known uranium and two known apatite occurrences within the Denison lease application and the abandoned Mount Adam Tin-Niobium mine is located less than one kilometre to the south.
The region is highly prospective for uranium mineralisation with numerous deposits occurring in a range of geological settings within the region. These include the Nolan’s Bore Rare Earth Element (REE) Project (Arafura Resources), the Bigrlyi Uranium deposit (Energy Metal’s managed JV) and the Napperby Uranium deposit (Toro Energy). The lease is surrounded by numerous active exploration projects belonging to Toro Energy, Deep Yellow and Scimitar.
The surface geology of the Denison lease is dominated by a thin veneer of Quaternary aged sediments overlying the porphyritic Wangala granite gneiss which intrudes Palaeoproterozoic aged Quartzo-feldspathic gneiss and calc-silicate rocks and schists.
These granites and gneisses are known to be radiogenic (uranium bearing), and are believed to be the source of the uranium which has been remobolised into the overlying Proterozoic, Palaeozoic and Tertiary sedimentary cover units, including the Ngalia, Amadeus and Tertiary basins. The uranium deposits at Bigrlyi, Napperby (New Well) and Angela are examples of this.
Within the Denison project area there are numerous large NE trending structural zones which appear to control the known uranium mineralisation and some large apatite veins. The area has strong geological affinities to the Nolan’s Bore area where rare earths and uranium mineralisation is also associated with large apatite veins. Additionally the area is prospective for structurally controlled uranium mineralisation sourced from basement and deposited within reducing sediments (calc-silicate rocks and biotite schists) adjacent to these major structures. Radiogenic basement rocks, large structures and reducing “trap” rocks are the essential ingredients in most of the world‘s large high grade uranium deposits.