Boss Energy Limited (ASX: BOE) is planning to step up development activity at its Honeymoon uranium project in South Australia after a review of its historical database has highlighted significant potential to grow the inventory.
During the past year, Boss’s geology team completed a comprehensive desktop review of all historical geoscientific information acquired since exploration began on the Honeymoon Project in the late 1960’s.
The exercise revealed a treasure trove of data, including geological field maps, field measurements of mapped structures and geochemical assays from rock chip samples sourced from exposed basement bedrock, proving potential for hard-rock uranium mineralisation in the southern parts of the tenements.
Extracted geophysical data include tenement-scale gravity surveys and prospect-scale ground magnetic surveys within both Eastern and Western Region tenements. Coincident gravity/magnetic anomalies have been identified that do not appear to have been drill tested and may indicate potential for Iron-Oxide- Copper-Gold (IOCG) type mineralisation, based on proximity and similarity of geological features to Havilah Resources’ Kalkaroo and Portia copper/gold deposits
The wealth of historical information revealed multiple anomalies in coinciding datasets within areas that are still relatively under-explored, distal to known JORC resources.
A limited scout exploration drill campaign has been completed to test the accuracy of data gathered and the geophysical passive seismic mapping technique, within areas with existing heritage clearances.
The drilling returned highly promising uranium intercepts that support current conceptual models, showing significant potential for high-grade mineralisation outside the Honeymoon Restart Area.
Managing Director, Duncan Craib, said Honeymoon is fully permitted to export 3.3Mlbs U3O8 equivalent per annum, with the 2020 Feasibility Study confirming the company’s position as Australia’s next uranium producer capable of re-starting production within a 12-month timeframe in response to a market upswing.
The historical database study and scout drilling support our view that there is immense potential to grow the inventory at Honeymoon,” Mr Craib said.
“This has the potential to create significant value for shareholders because it would open the door to increasing the mine life and production rate, which would in turn grow the project’s NPV and free cashflow.
“We are now devising an exploration campaign to unlock this value. This will be done in parallel with completion of the EFS, project funding discussions and offtake negotiations.”
The forthcoming field season is aimed at extending Honeymoon’s mine life and increase its production profile by a) upgrading known JORC resources outside of the HRA and b) targeting greenfields exploration areas distal to the known resources. On completion of the forthcoming heritage clearances, exploration will resume with the initiation of ground-based, low-cost and non-invasive geophysical surveys in the Western Region tenements. Results from the historical data review will be used to constrain and refine the size, and location, of the survey areas as part of the overall move towards smarter targeting practices. Completion of the geophysical surveys will be followed by exploration drilling.
A $275,000 South Australian Government exploration grant awarded to Boss via the Accelerated Discovery Initiative (ADI) will be used to support the planned 2021 exploration field season, with continued introduction of innovative exploration alternatives for palaeovalley definition, smarter drill target generation within the existing Exploration Target areas, and the eventual growth of existing uranium JORC mineral resources (currently totalling 71.6Mlbs U3O8).