Brumby Project
Summary | Geology and Mineralisation
Summary
In mid 2007 Newera entered into an agreement with Fermi Pty Ltd (“Fermi”), giving it a three-year option to secure 80% of Fermi’s rights to Northern Territory exploration licences EL25700 and EL25926.
The tenement package, designated the “Brumby” project, represents a highly prospective and significant Rare Earth Element (REE) and uranium exploration opportunity and consolidates Newera’s ground position within the Harts Range province. The Brumby tenements are within 25km of Newera’s existing Quartz Hill project.
Fig 1: Topographical plan showing Brumby Dam leases with Newera’s Quartz Hill and White Lady Projects.
The project consists of two leases, E25700 “Brumby Dam” and E25926 “Bluey’s Folly”. Brumby Dam has recently been granted and Bluey’s Folly is in application.
Fig 2: Topographical plan showing Brumby Project leases in detail.
Geology & Mineralisation
Uranium mineralisation at the Brumby prospect is hosted by pegmatite dykes intruding gneisses and schists of the Illogwa Shear Zone. The pegmatites occur as a swarm radiating from the nearby Entia Dome, a granite intrusion 20km to the north east and are related to late stage granite emplacement after the Alice Springs Orogeny.
The pegmatites contain allanite, a common REE and uranium bearing mineral typically occurring in pegmatites and some granites. This style of mineralisation is similar to that identified at Newera's Quartz Hill Project which hosts numerous pegmatite dykes, each typically 10m wide by several hundred metres long.
Within EL25926, the Bluey’s Folly prospect outcrops over an area of about 4km2 that consists predominantly of pegmatite and has in the past been estimated (albeit non JORC compliant) to contain significant amounts of allanite (Murrell 1988). Table 1 below contains a list of rock chip sample results from the area.
Fig 3: NT Geol Survey geology plan for the Brumby Project.
Brumby Dam and Bluey’s Folly are different to the Quartz Hill pegmatites in that while Quartz Hill is high in the “heavy” REEs such as Tantalum (Ta) and Niobium (Nb), the Brumby project is rich in the “light” REEs such as Lanthanum (La) and Cerium (Ce). There is also an element of Phosphate (P) in the Brumby mineralisation which is lacking at Quartz Hill.
This is similar in mineralogy to the Nolan’s Bore REE deposit to the west, where Arafura Resources are building a processing facility. This proximity to such a facility for will affect the economics of any deposit at Brumby positively.
(Table 1 Ref: Hussey KJ, 2003; Rare earth element mineralization in the eastern Arunta Region. Northern Territory Geological Survey, Record 4 2003 )