Location
The Onslow Project comprises 2 granted Exploration Licences (E08/1499-500) (for a total current granted area of 333km2) and one application (E08/1946) in the northern area of the Carnarvon Basin. It is located 30km south of the town of Onslow, and east of the Ashburton River between Mt Minnie and Minderoo Stations. Access to the area is via the Northwest Coastal Highway from Carnarvon or Karratha and then by the sealed Onslow Road, which passes through the Project area.

The climate is arid sub-tropical with intermittent stream flow including major flood events related to cyclonic rainfall. Topography is predominantly flat sandplain and scrubland. The area slopes gently towards the northwest, with the plain having an elevation of about 75m in the southeast of the Project area and about 20m in the northwest.

This Project is located 32km north of Paladin Energy Limited’s Manyingee Project (Paladin’s project contains a stacked roll-front deposit with a published indicated and inferred resource of 13.4M tonnes at a grade of 0.08% U3O8 using a cutoff of 0.03% U3O8 (for a total of 24Mlb U3O8)).

Project Geology and Exploration History

Proterozoic basement is shallower than for the Nyang Project located to the south, but the stratigraphic sequence is similar. In the central part of the Onslow Project area the Cretaceous Winning Pool Group, including the Birdrong Sandstone directly overlies the basement. Lithological variants within the Birdrong Sandstone include quartz sands, arkosic sandstone, carbonaceous siltstone and claystone. A number of thicker palaeochannels have been defined and drain to the north northwest; these include the Mount Minnie, Dunns and Spinifex Channels.

Minatome Australia Pty Ltd, who discovered the Manyingee deposit in 1974, commenced exploration in the project area in 1972, and successfully defined a number of palaeochannels,including the Spinifex and Dunns Channels (Figure 6). Following further limited evaluation Minatome eventually surrendered the area. Additional exploration was undertaken by CRA Exploration Pty Ltd (CRA) (now Rio Tinto Limited) in the period 1978 to 1980, who continued to focus on the Dunns Channel. Although CRA completed a number of drill holes, results were not encouraging and the tenements were surrendered.  Skryne Hill Pty Ltd subsequently acquired the tenements (EL08/1499-500, ELA 08/1496) during 2006 and:

• Compiled and re-interpreted all historical aeromagnetic and gravity geophysical data acquired by previous operators;
• Completed approximately 128 line km of airborne EM (AEM) at 35m height on 2km line spacing and processed and interpreted all acquired data; and
• Joint ventured the area to Hampton Hill Mining Ltd who undertook a total of 47 holes of aircore drilling for 4,435m before withdrawing from the joint venture.

Significant results from the drilling are shown in Table 2. These demonstrate significant potential for roll-front style uranium mineralisation within what is thought to be the Dunns Channel.

Figure 8. Location of Spinifex and Dunns Channels – Onslow Project

Table 2. Onslow Uranium Project significant drilling results from Hampton Hill drilling (2006)