The Rover project encompasses a 3,980 sq kms package in the Tennant Creek region of the Northern Territory. It comprises one granted tenement, EL 24471, and three licence applications, ELA25581, ELA25582 and ELA25587.
The project is the subject of a joint venture with TNG Ltd. Under the terms of the agreement, Western Desert Resources Ltd has to spend $500,000 within 18 months to earn a 51% interest, with the option to increase to 80% by spending $850,000 within 30 months of exercise of option.
The ground was secured to explore for classic Tennant Creek style copper-gold mineralisation. The attributes that make the Rover area a key part of Western Desert Resources’ gold and base metals portfolio include:
The Tennant Creek IOCG deposits are characterised by very high gold grades. This means that commercially viable deposits may be found at depths of hundreds of metres. Drilling by Westgold Resources Ltd on the Rover 1 anomaly, located less than one kilometre from the boundary of EL25581, returned spectacular intersection including one of 65 metres at 11 g/t gold & 0.75% copper. Historical drilling over a number of years by explorers in the Rover field has determined that large areas of the Warramunga Formation, which hosts the orebodies at Tennant Creek, exist at depth under cover. The Rover tenements are on Aboriginal Freehold land and pastoral lease under Native Title claim. At present an ILUA (Indigenous Land Use Agreement) is in place for EL24471. Negotiations for an ALRA (Aboriginal Land Rights Agreement) on EL25581 are at an advanced stage, and the company is hopeful that exploration on the ground will be possible during the second half of 2009.
The proposed exploration program in 2009 will be largely devoted to drill testing targets identified by an aeromag survey conducted in March 2009 within EL25581. Following the expected grant of the licence a diamond drilling program will test magnetic anomalies of an apparently similar tenor to Westgold Resources Limited Rover 1 prospect.
During 2008, one diamond hole was drilled into the Explorer 42 prospect, in EL24471 to test a combined magnetic and gravity anomaly at depth. Holes drilled by previous explorers did not intersect significant gold or copper mineralisation, nor did they adequately explain the observed geophysical anomalies.
Drillhole E3DD05 was completed at 446 metres after testing two magnetic banded ironstone formation (BIF) zones. The magnetic zones exhibit high magnetic susceptibilities, and explain the magnetic anomaly. Assays of core cut from the two BIF zones did not report anomalous gold values.
WDR Price at posting:
49.5¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
