Ferret's Stock to Watch: EROMANGA URANIUM LTD 08:33, Tuesday, 1 May 2007
Sydney - Tuesday - May 1: (RWE Aust Business News) **************************************************
OVERVIEW ********
The weekend decision by the Australian Labor Party to scrap its "no new uranium mines" policy has provided a fillip for the melange of companies scouring the country for the radioactive material.
Eromanga Uranium Ltd (ASX:ERO), one of the many recently listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, has a solid portfolio in the hotbeds of uranium exploration activity within the Eromanga and Gawler cratons in South Australia and Northern Territory.
The company has recently completed over 4,000 line/kilometre of airborne EM surveys at the Marree JV project in which it has a 70 per cent interest with partner Maximus Resources (ASX:MXR) in northern South Australia.
Last month it delineated a previously unknown and unexplored palaeodrainage system.
This buried river system, located entirely within Eromanga's tenements, has over 100km of deeper channels capable of hosting sandstone hosted (rollfront) uranium deposits.
The data identified an area 20km by 10km containing a cluster of six discrete anomalies.
Eromanga has applied for two additional exploration licences covering approximately 1,870sqkm immediately to the west of current tenements at Marree.
At Billa Kalina, SA, Eromanga is earning 50pc in a joint venture with Maximus and drilling of two deep diamond drill holes to test the gravity anomaly will take place shortly. This gravity anomaly is similar to those at Carrapateena and Prominent Hill and is considered prospective for iron oxide copper/gold/uranium-style mineralisation.
At the Illogwa Creek project, NT, where the company is earning 70pc in a JV with Maximus, the first meeting with the traditional owners is expected to take place in the second week of May.
Provided that the response from this meeting is positive there will be a requirement for a second meeting and subsequent Heritage Clearances before on-ground exploration can commence.
Eromanga plans a very active June quarter with airborne EM surveys at Billa Kalina and Abminga and the commencement of drilling at Billa Kalina and Marree.
SHARE PRICE MOVEMENTS *********************
Shares of Eromanga have posted a rolling high of 38c and low of 17c since its listing. The shares closed yesterday at 36.5c, up 3.5c
The company has 61,339,203 shares on issue with a market cap of $21.78 million.
Maximus Resources holds approximately 44.36m (35.4pc) shares in Eromanga.
BACKGROUND **********
Eromanga listed on the ASX on October 31, 2006.
Its projects include:
Marree (70pc): 40km east of Marree in SA. The Marree Palaeodrainage is constrained to the west by a major basement fault. Interpretation of the survey data suggests that this fault structure was a major barrier to water flow and caused the development of an ancient swamp or lake system.
The company believes this type of palaeo environment would result in an excellent site for later development of rollfront style uranium mineralisation. Data was originally acquired, in 1993, as part of the government-sponsored South Australian Exploration Initiative (SAEI) and covers the entire tenement position at the Marree. The multi-channel radiometric data has been re-processed, using various ratios, to identify areas of anomalous or elevated gamma responses which may be due to the presence of uranium at surface.
Analytical results returned a best value of 85ppm uranium (two samples) with six of the 32 samples assaying in excess of 50ppm uranium. These anomalous uranium results, whilst not economic, are important for confirming the presence of elevated uranium concentrations in bedrock over a substantial area.
Illogwa Creek (70pc): 200km east of Alice Springs in NT with two exploration licence applications covering 1,333sqkm. Tenements positioned at the contact between the Eromanga Basin and the eastern margin of the late Proterozoic Arunta province. The company is targeting sandstone-hosted uranium mineralisation along shallow basin margin.The Illogwa project is the most northern tenement holding forming part of the Eromanga Basin initiative.
Billa Kalina (50pc): 70km from Olympic Dam mine in SA. The JV covers all non-diamond minerals in five granted exploration licences covering 4,084sqkm. The company is targeting sandstone-hosted uranium deposits in Permian palaeodrainages along the margins of the Arkaringa Basin.
Targeting gravity highs for Olympic Dam-style iron oxide uranium/copper/gold with geophysics and drilling. The northwesterly trending G2 structural corridor, a continental scale geological feature thought to represent a long lasting zone of crustal weakness along which the Olympic Dam mineralisation is located, passes through the Eromanga tenements.
Billa Kalina consists of five largely contiguous tenements in which, by agreement with Flinders Diamonds (ASX:FDL) can be explored for non-diamond minerals by the JV.Interpretation of regional gravity data has highlighted a broad gravity high beneath the overlying younger sediments.
Kingoonya (70pc): The company is targeting shallow sandstone hosted deposits as well unconformity-related uranium mineralisation. Located mid-way between the townships of Glendambo and Coober Pedy, SA, the project contains four exploration licences and one exploration licence application covering 4,060sqkm.
The project is targeting two distinct styles of uranium mineralisation - shallow sandstone hosted deposits in Mesozoic and Tertiary palaeodrainages and deeper unconformity related deposits similar to the high grade systems at Alligator River, NT.
Abminga (70pc): In northern South Australia with seven exploration licence applications covering 6,966sqkm.A contiguous block positioned over the contact between the Eromanga Basin and the uranium enriched Musgrave Block. Over 230 kilometres of basin margin to explore.
The company is targeting sandstone hosted uranium deposits in Mesozoic palaeodrainages along the basin margin. The Abminga project is the largest of the four projects which make up the Eromanga Basin initiative. The project will explore over 230 kilometres of the Eromanga Basin margin where it is in contact with the metamorphosed sediments and volcanics of the middle Proterozoic Musgrave Block.
The target is sandstone hosted uranium mineralisation in the Mesozoic palaeodrainages. Limited previous exploration in 1975 by BHP identified northeast trending palaeovalleys along the southern basin margin.