Lake Way Project
Summary | Location and tenure | Geology | Geophysics
Summary
The Lake Way Project covers prospective calcrete deposits along significant Tertiary palaeochannels to the north of Lake Way. The tenements lie to the north and east of Wiluna in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
The area is highly prospective for uranium mineralisation with several significant uranium deposits in close proximity; including the world class Yeelirrie Deposit and Nova Energy’s Lakeway Uranium Deposit.
Location and Tenure
The Company holds some 475 square kilometers of prospective ground in the Eastern Goldfields Province of W.A., in four tenements all of which are granted EL’s. Three of the tenements are contiguous (Figure 1). The project area is located 7km east of Wiluna and extends 28 km to the east and 72 km to the north of the township.
Licences E53/1178, E53/1180, E53/1193 and E53/1194 are all part of the original option agreement with Cazaly Resources and are in their second year of existence.
Fig 1: Location of Lake Way tenements on 1:250K topography
The area is highly prospective for uranium mineralisation with several significant uranium deposits in close proximity; including the world class Yeelirrie Deposit located some 75 km to the SW. Nova Energy Limited’s Lakeway Uranium Deposit lies 1.5 km to the south and Agincourt Resources Limited’s Wiluna Gold Mine is situated 6 km to the east of Cazaly’s tenement E 53/1180.
Geology
The project area is known to contain calcrete-hosted uranium mineralisation, with significant low grade mineralisation i.e. 8 meters at 147.5 ppm U (from 4 meters in RC hole MUWRC08) being intersected in widely spaced drill holes to the south of Uramurdah Well and immediately north of Nova Energy Limited’s IPO tenements, and the Lakeway Deposit.
The Project area overlies the eastern margin of the NNW trending Archaean Wiluna Greenstone Belt comprising mafic and ultramafic volcanics, minor felsic volcanics and metasediments, and the adjacent Archaean Granitoid rocks. The northern EL’s lie in close proximity to the edge of the Yerrida Basin and the Yilgarn Craton with some Yerrida Basin sediments underlying the northern part of E 53/1193. The most notable feature within the project area is the Uramurdah Creek drainage channel which follows a broad Tertiary palaeochannel as it drains into the north eastern section of Lake Way. To the east, recent alluvium, colluvium and sands overly basement gneiss and granitoids.
A number of widely spaced historic drill holes within E 53/1180 intersected uranium mineralisation along Uramurdah Creek, upstream from Nova’s Lakeway Deposit. The mineralisation is contained within a similar host unit to that seen at the Lakeway Deposit; i.e. a siliceous calcrete unit which has undergone various stages of silicification, from fine chalcedonic veinlets through to massive chalcedonic and opaline silicates (WMC, 1974), although according to Carlisle (1978) the calcrete within E 53/1180 belongs to an older calcrete delta, not the younger calcrete delta which hosts the Lakeway Deposit.
Fig 2: Index map of Newera’s Lake Way project showing highlights and important areas over simplified geology and regolith.
The uranium mineralisation identified at the Lakeway Deposit to the south is confined to a broad Tertiary palaeochannel delta at the mouth of Uramurdah Creek and is described as being contained within surficial deposits of calcrete dolomite, sand, silt and clays which overlie basement geology to a depth of up to 40m. An updated Inferred Resource of 7.56 Mt at 0.053 % U3O8 for 4 000 tonnes U3O8, when reporting above a 300ppm U3O8 cut-off grade, has been publicly quoted for the deposit.
Landsat Data mapping of the area to the north east of Uramurdah Well suggests a similar character to that seen at the Lakeway Deposit. This area remains to be explored, but radiometric data has identified U/Th anomalies (important as the ratio indicates a concentration of U) in 10km of calcrete within the northern tenements. These are Greenfield areas with no previous exploration activities.
High vanadium readings have been recorded in soil samples taken in the northern part of E53/1193 at surface. Vanadium is less leachable than uranium and this is encouraging.
An Aircore drilling program of over 500 holes on E53/1193 has been submitted for DoIR approvals. This program targets the interpreted palaeochannel running from the Lakeway deposit north through the lease, including the area of anomalous vanadium soil results. Heritage issues remain to be reconciled on the southern and northern leases but progress is being made.
Geophysics
Bearing in mind the fact that 30cm of cover reduces a radiometric signal to effectively zero, radiometrics are still the preferred geophysical method when exploring for calcrete and other surficial deposits such as those in the Wiluna area simply because the deposits are usually at or close to the surface.
Fig 3: Uranium radiometrics and interpretation of position of Tertiary palaeochannel.
Uranium radiometrics over the project show a significant anomaly on the leases in the north, and enable the trace of the Tertiary palaeochannel north from the delta at the north shore of the lake (fig 2). Uranium over thorium shows the enrichment of uranium and highlights the exposed calcrete at the Lakeway deposit. This image also enables focus on the most prospective areas of the leases, especially on E53/1194 in the north.
Fig 4: Uranium over Thorium (shows U enrichment at surface) image for the Lake Way project. Note exposed calcretes on E53/1194 and high points on E53/1193.
Fig 5: Uranium over Thorium image for E53/1193, showing interpreted palaeochannel and proposed drilling across channel position. Drilling is to test for sub-surface calcretes as seen in historic drilling for gold.
Newera has submitted a drilling proposal to the Dept of Industry and Resources to cover the prospective areas in E53/1193. This has been cleared of the many heritage issues in the area and we are not expecting difficulties in gaining approval. Other areas on the project are undergoing heritage surveys in the near future and proposals will be submitted for those as soon as possible.