Alligator Energy has made a new discovery at the Big Lake uranium project in South Australia.
During its inaugural drilling program for Big Lake, Alligator intersected significant thicknesses of anomalous uranium mineralisation within interbedded palaeochannel sand units in the Namba Formation.
To date, four air-core drillholes have intersected palaeochannel sand units that host anomalous uranium mineralisation located between 90m to 130m below surface and potentially within in-situ recovery (ISR) amenable host and depths.
The indicative grade-thickness of two intersections is at or near the economic cut off used at Alligator’s Samphire ISR uranium project near Whyalla, SA.
The uranium explorer describes this discovery as “the first proof of concept that significant uranium is present within the Lake Eyre basin sediments”, which sit above the Cooper Basin.
“This is the first significant greenfields discovery of uranium in South Australia since the Samphire uranium project in 2007 by the company UraniumSA,” Alligator Energy chief executive officer Greg Hall said.
“The thickness extent of mineralisation layers ranging up to 20m in these discovery holes is impressive for this style of mineralisation. While estimated grades are still on the lower side, to have grade thickness intersections close to the cut-off used at our Samphire project from the initial discovery area is very encouraging.”
Hall said the sediments lying above the Cooper Basin cover an extensive area, and Alligator hopes this the potential to develop into a new ISR amenable uranium field.
Alligator is currently drilling two further holes within the area of the discovery.
At the end of the drilling program, all samples will be transported to Adelaide for detailed laboratory assaying and analysis. Once the results have been analysed, Alligator will commence approvals and initiate heritage clearances for follow-up drilling at Big Lake.
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