Jailor Bore Project

Summary

Newera’s Jailor Bore Project lies approximately 200km NE of Carnarvon and 150km north and slightly west of Newera’s Pells’ Range project. The project comprises three leases, one of which is operated by Newera under a JV agreement and one of which is in application.

Figure 1: Jailor Bore regional location diagram

The leases cover several prospects. These include at least two limestone hosted carbonate traps on the contact of the Pilbara Craton granites, and terraced calcrete deposits surrounding Willaraddie Creek. A small, low grade resource of calcrete hosted mineralisation with 420t contained U3O8 is excised from the main tenement (EL09/1194).

Newera has identified Carnotite in the limestones. A 4000m RC drilling program to test both the limestone trap at Ben Hur and the calcrete mesa at Willi Creek is in the process of getting heritage clearance from the Gnulli Native Title claimant group.
EL09/1298 is the subject of a JV agreement with Coccinella Pty Ltd, Newera believing the limestones and sandstones adjacent to the granite contact on the lease are highly prospective. Newly acquired radiometric data vindicates the companies’ decision, as several anomalies very similar to the Ben Hur prospect are highlighted on the lease.

El09/1434 is an application made to the west of EL09/1298, on the more speculative basis that the structures seen in aeromagnetic images that cross the basin floor could possibly be prospective for unconformity type mineralisation, in a manner similar to that seen in the Athabascan Basin in Canada.

Location and Tenure

The Jailor Bore project lies in the Northern Gascoyne of Western Australia, 195 km NE from Carnarvon, east of Minilya Roadhouse on the North West Coastal Highway some 140km by unsealed highway. It lies approximately 150km to the north-northwest of Newera’s Pells’ Range project. The Goldfields Gas Pipeline runs north-south through the project area.

Figure 2: Jailor Bore location diagram, based on Winning Pool 1:250,000 topographical map sheet. EL09/1194 (Newera) and EL09/1298 (Coccinella JV) are granted, EL09/1436 is in application. Grid is MGA.

Newera is operating an option agreement with Cazaly Iron Pty Ltd to manage exploration on the granted lease EL09/1194, has a JV agreement with Coccinella Pty Ltd to operate the granted lease EL09/1298, and has applied for EL09/1434 in it’s own name. EL09/1194 is in it’s second year of operation while EL09/1298 is in it’s first.

Geology

The Project area overlies the contact of the Carnarvon basin and the Pilbara Craton, where Devonian limestone, siltstone and sandstone sediments overlie Early Proterozoic granitoid rocks which have been intruded by Proterozoic dolerite dykes and sills. Quaternary sand and sheetwash deposits occupy areas of low relief. A tongue of granitoids that creates the Merlinleigh sub-basin extends into the project area from the main Craton in the north (fig.3).

Figure 3: Simplified GSWA geology of the Jailor Bore project.

The source of the uranium on the leases is thought to be the Early Proterozoic gneisses and granitic rocks of the Pilbara Craton, which can exhibit anomalous radioactivity of up to eight times background. These anomalous rocks outcrop extensively in the catchment area of Willaraddie Creek.

The main unit of interest is the Middle Devonian Gneudna Formation limestones and siltstones, basal sediments in the area of the Carnarvon basin. These sediments wrap around the contact of the granites and in two different areas contain significant radiometric uranium and uranium/thorium anomalies. The first and most progressed of these is the Ben Hur prospect on E09/1194.

Enhancing the prospectivity of Ben Hur is the fact that locally Willaraddie Creek follows a fault structure that offsets the granite contact by some 400m, giving the groundwaters further exposure to the limestones at depth in the weathered horizon. The Ben Hur radiometric anomaly is focussed around this structure, which extends out to the west into “red bed” oxidised sandstones, another favourable host unit for uranium mineralisation.

The second unit of interest is a palaeo-calcrete which forms a mesa on the banks of the Willaraddie Creek downstream from the Jailor Bore Deposit. The calcrete is a surficial siliceous limestone formed by precipitation from surface groundwater, and despite bearing much radiation damaged black quartz & chalcedony is as yet untested. Similar terraced calcrete-hosted uranium deposits such as Minindi Creek have also been identified in the Gascoyne Province.

The sandstones of the Williambury Formation that overly the basal limestones outcrop as a ridge running north-south in EL09/1298. These outcrop as red/orange sandstones and conglomerates, with gossanous iron oxide concretions. These gossans have been the subject of much historical base metal exploration, but although depleted in uranium contain strongly anomalous vanadium (178ppm V in sample J050701), suggesting mineralisation possible below a leached cap. This is a quality target for exploration.

The limestone, sandstone and calcrete units all have strong potential to contain secondary uranium mineralisation.

Figure 4: Schematic section of the prospective areas and possible ore types of the Jailor Bore project.

E09/1434, Newera’s western application overlies the Lyons Formation sandstones, with associated conglomerates, siltstones and glacial varves and tillites. Several major and many less significant structures cross the floor of this basin and these are considered prospective for unconformity type deposits. In addition there is also the possibility of redox front type deposits within the sandstones where U-laden waters cross them.

Exploration History

Pacminex and Uranerz were exploring for uranium in the area of the project in the early 1970’s. Little detailed work was done, most exploration of the area having been done in the 1970’s and 1980’s for base metal deposits in the limestones. An exception to this is the area around the Jailor Bore excision, where Pacminex conducted a pattern drilling exercise on the calcretes in the excision and produced a small resource.

Widely spaced and shallow vacuum drilling over two of the radiometric anomalies at Ben Hur encountered uranium mineralisation (i.e. 145 ppm from 2-3m and 110 ppm U from 5-5.5 m in hole 232) in clayey limestone to the north of Nardarra Well, the location of the current Ben Hur prospect.

No follow-up exploration activities have been undertaken here prior to Newera’s interest.

Newera considers the Ben Hur project to be the more prospective of the two areas due to it’s possible depth extension and hence possible scale. Recently obtained radiometric data indicates a similar anomaly to the Ben Hur prospect exists on the JV lease E09/1298 in the same Gneudna limestones to the south, and this is being followed up. Another similar anomaly exists in the north of the tenement.

The calcrete terrace on the western banks of Willaraddie Creek has not been tested. This in spite of it’s anomalism for uranium and uranium/thorium, although the latter shows a higher reading for the scree slopes of the terrace. This Newera believes is because the surface silica rich zones have been comparatively depleted and the better grades are masked beneath the surface.

In view of the success of other explorers with electromagnetic (EM) geophysical techniques in the exploration of the Athabascan Basin in Canada, Newera proposes to conduct an aerial EM survey across both the western tenements as soon as practicable. The contact of the granites and the basal limestones on their E09/1194 lease will also be covered, and Newera has already begun by flying a pair of profiles across this contact as part of the recent survey on the Pells’ Range project.

Geophysics

Radiometrics

Geophysical coverage of the Jailor Bore project is good, and Newera have had the available data imaged for interpretation over the project area. Because granites are rich in thorium and potassium as well as uranium, the imaged data of the uranium signal divided by the thorium signal (U/Th) has proven the most effective delineator of enrichment in uranium.

Figure 5: U/Th image of the Jailor Bore project with structural interpretation overlaid. Position of host limestones is shown in hatching. Target anomalies, including Ben Hur and Willi Creek, are outlined in red.

The Ben Hur prospect and the Willi Creek calcrete are the first two of these anomalies to be tested, with drilling expected to begin late in 2007. Ben Hur is actually two separate occurrences in the limestone, one of which is 2.8km x 500m, the other of which is 3.2km x 300m with a 1km gap where the Minilya River crosses the unit and sands cloak the anomaly.

There are several other targets in the limestones adjacent to the granite contact, and several more muted anomalies in the oxidised sandstones which overly them. Each of these anomalies is an excellent target for drill testing and planning is underway.

Aeromagnetics

The Pilbara Craton granite basement has a strong magnetic character. The overlying sediments however do not, meaning interpretation of basement structures using the aeromagnetics is relatively easy. Figure 6 shows the Total Magnetic Intensity image for the Jailor Bore project area, with GSWA structural interpretation overlaid. The mapped occurrence of the Gneudna Limestones is shown also.

Figure 6: TMI image of the Jailor Bore project with structural interpretation overlaid. Position of host limestones is shown in hatching.

The structures seen crossing the basement floor under the sediments are possible sites for uranium mineralisation trapped in the unconformity between the basement and the overlying sediments. Newera is currently examining geophysical techniques that will effectively delineate prospective areas for drill testing.

Mineralisation

At the Ben Hur prospect within Newera’s main Jailor Bore tenement (E09/1194) and adjacent to the boundary of the optioned tenement (E09/1298), outcropping porous calcareous sediments dip at ~ 25o to the west into the optioned tenement. These sediments represent a favourable uranium trap site.

The “dirty” limestones of the basal contact sediments, the Gneudna Formation, have been shown to contain the potassium-uranium-vanadate mineral carnotite (Fig. 2), with the mineral identified from hand specimen by Roger Townend and Associates of Perth using a Scanning Electron Microscope.
Difficulties have been encountered with assaying, and the results of assays have proven disappointing with the peak value at the surface to date being 28ppmU. This suggests the mineral is on surfaces only and not distributed through the rock, common in leached surface outcrops.

Figure 7: Visible Carnotite on sandy limestone from Newera’s Ben Hur prospect at Jailor Bore. Carnotite is the yellow mineral.

At this point in time mineralisation appears to be associated with the same type of chemical trap that is associated with the calcrete deposits further upstream along Willaraddie creek, i.e. a precipitation of carnotite type minerals where the U rich waters running off the granites encounter host rocks high in carbonate, and a change in Ph occurs, and uranium is no longer soluble in the groundwaters causing deposition.

The fact that no further uranium anomalism is seen in the radiometrics along the Minilya river suggests that all contained uranium has been deposited, making the basal sediments of the Merlinleigh basin in this vicinity are a significant target for uranium exploration.