Northern Uranium is focussed on high quality exploration projects

Uranium

Gardiner-Tanami

Gardiner-Tanami Project MapSoma Drill section & GT04-08Gardiner-Tanami Project & Tenement Holdings & Geology


The Gardiner-Tanami Project covers a vast area of approximately 9,600 km2. The project has been the primary focus for the Company’s uranium exploration efforts since 2007.  The project consists of 17 granted exploration licenses’, one granted prospecting licence and 18 tenement applications. Tenements on the Western Australia (WA) side of the border cover an area of 1,850 km2, while those on the Northern Territory (NT) side cover 7,750 km2.
 
Interest
Northern owns 100% of all mineral rights on all project tenements within WA. The Company holds 100% of the uranium rights only for tenements within the NT which are held by or applied for by Ferrum Crescent (formerly Washington Resources).  All other project tenements within the NT are held 100% by Northern.

Location
The Gardiner Tanami Project is located around the WA/NT border 200 km southeast of Halls Creek, WA.

Project Operator
The project is operated by Afmeco Mining and Exploration Pty Ltd (‘Afmex’), a wholly-owned subsidiary of French nuclear group, Areva.  Areva has more than 30 years experience exploring for unconformity-related uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin, Canada, where it has had considerable success.  Areva owns and operates several mines in the Athabasca Basin which are unconformity-related deposits.

Target & Geology
Northern Uranium is targeting unconformity-related uranium deposits, which are high grade uranium deposits. Such deposits are typically formed by the mixing of oxidised basinal uranium-bearing brines, at or near an unconformity, and reduced basement fluids, associated with distinctive basement rocks (graphitic sediments) within fault zones, where redox reactions favour the deposition of high grade uranium mineralisation.  Northern Uranium’s exploration is therefore aimed at discovering sub-surface sites where conductive graphitic sediments and faulting occur at or near the geological unconformity between Middle Proterozoic Gardiner Sandstone and the Lower Proterozoic Killi Killi beds (or equivalents).  Deposits of the unconformity-related type in the highly productive uranium provinces of Australia’s Alligator Rivers region and Canada’s Athabasca Basin, are typically associated with graphitic sediments and have distinctive hydrothermal alteration haloes.

The Gardiner-Tanami area is compared geologically favourably with the Alligator Rivers region in the NT where the Ranger mine, Australia’s largest operating uranium mine, is located.  During the 1970s and 1980s the Gardiner Tanami project area attracted the attention of numerous uranium exploration companies, some of which discovered outcropping uranium prospects and radiometric anomalies indicating the possibility of unconformity-related uranium mineralisation.  The most significant of these discoveries was “The Don” prospect, found in the 1980s by BHP Minerals.  Primary high-grade uranium mineralisation was intersected in a diamond drill hole.  The Don prospect is located on the Gardner Range JV tenement E80/3275, adjacent to and in close proximity to the Oracle & Soma target areas.

Work Completed by Northern Uranium

In 2009, following two years of geophysical surveys and ground geological reconnaissance covering 6,000 km2 of tenements, Northern Uranium completed the first uranium-focused diamond drilling program in the region in nearly 30 years.  The geophysical surveys included airborne magnetics, radiometrics and Versatile Time-Domain Electromagnetics (VTEM), a method of locating sub-surface conductors.  Two main target areas with strong VTEM conductors (potential graphitic sediments and uranium host rocks) were drilled, which were as follows:

Soma

  • Soma – highest priority target area in the vicinity of “The Don” prospect six (6) holes for 1047m drilled,  primary uranium mineralisation (pitchblende) and clay alteration characteristic of unconformity-style uranium deposits intersected in three holes out of five drilled through unconformity,
  • Spot measurements up to 2,100ppm U (0.252% U3O8) in hole GT04 (155.9m – 156.3m) and up to 1,470ppm U (0.176% U3O8) in hole GT07 (164.45m – 165.6m), Primary uranium minerals pitchblende and autunite identified in small veinlets.

 Lewis Creek North (now referred to as Mt.Mansbridge South)

  •     Two (2) holes for 467m drilled, second hole intersected narrow zone of uranium mineralisation at a depth of 146.8m,
  •     Mineralisation is closely associated with an oxidised fracture zone located below a graphitic conductor

Preliminary mineralogical and geochronological studies of the pitchblende mineralisation by Afmex confirmed that the Gardiner-Tanami region displays similarities in geology and style of mineralisation/alteration with the highly productive Athabasca Basin and Alligator Rivers uranium provinces. 
 
2010 Work program
A work program and budget has been approved by the NTU Board for 2010 at the Gardiner-Tanami project.  All proposed exploration activities are within the WA tenements of the project.

The program consists of three key exploration activities:

  • Geological and structural mapping (with rock chip sampling) of drill targets and other prospect areas;
  • Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling;
  • Airborne EM survey over recently granted tenements in WA

These activities will be focused on the following key target areas:

  • Soma (E80/3405 - NTU 100% & E80/3275 – NTU earning 60%) - Geological and structural mapping, followed by RC drilling (10-15 holes for 2000-2500m).  Drilling will be focused on testing the continuation of the conductive body drilled in 2009.  All holes are on top of the Gardiner Range plateau and will intersect the Gardiner Sandstone/Killi Killi formation unconformity
  • Oracle (E80/3405 – NTU 100%) - Geological and structural mapping, followed by RC drilling (2-3 holes for 400-600m).  This target, comprising string late-time conductors in proximity to the unconformity was proposed in 2009 but was not tested in that program due to access problems and budgetary constraints.
  • Mt.Mansbridge North (E80/3414 - NTU 100%) - Geological and structural mapping, followed by RC drilling (2-3 holes for 400-600m).  Strong conductors have been targeted at two locations; one directly into the Killi Killi basement and adjacent to a major structure, and the second targeting the Gardiner sandstone/Killi Killi unconformity.
  • Mt. Mansbridge South (E80/3414, 3404 – NTU 100%) - Geological and structural mapping, followed by RC drilling (2-3 holes for 400-600m ).  This area was drilled with 2 diamond drill holes in 2009, and intersected some weak mineralization.  Three proposed holes will target strong conductors.
  • Lewis Creek (E80/3404 – NTU 100%) – Geological and structural mapping
  • Deva (Don/Soma South) (E80/3530, 3914 – NTU 100%, E80/1735 – NTU earning 60%) - Geological and structural mapping
  • Slatey Creek (E80/3915 – NTU 100%) - Geological and structural mapping
  • Billiluna  (E80/3682 – NTU 100%) - Geological and structural mapping

Geological and structural mapping in the drill target areas (The Don, Soma, Oracle, Mt.Mansbridge North, Mt.Mansbridge South) will help identify geological and structural targets in the vicinity of the conductive bodies.  Other areas will be mapped at a more regional scale.