Marmota (ASX: MEU) has obtained positive results from a Yolanda Prospect project review by uranium specialist Mark Couzens. The Yolanda area is Stage 3 of the four part Junction Dam uranium review and drill program design currently being carried out.
The Yolanda Prospect is located to the south of Marmota’s Saffron Uranium resource area at Junction Dam and is also immediately adjacent to the Boss (ASX:BOE) Honeymoon tenement in South Australia.
An extensive uranium-bearing Eyre Formation palaeochannel has been interpreted from the Yolanda project review with a south to north trend heading towards Marmota’s Saffron Uranium Deposit.
The Yolanda uranium exploration target stretches over 8km long and more than 1km wide.
Drilling to date at Yolanda has shown that high-grade uranium mineralisation exists in flood plains on the sides of the palaeochannel as well as in the weathered sandstone basement near the palaeochannel.
In part due to the small number of historical holes in this area, most of the previous drilling at the Yolanda Prospect missed the key palaeochannel as well as the corresponding floodplains, so the full extent of uranium mineralisation remains untested to date.
None of the Yolanda Prospect area is currently included in Marmota’s Junction Dam uranium resource area, and so it provides further significant scope for growth of Marmota’s uranium resource at Junction Dam.
Numerous drillholes in the Yolanda Prospect intersected significant uranium grades in the weathered basement and basement, especially in close proximity to the palaeochannel.
Priority targets have been identified from the stratigraphic interpretation completed, as well as from the state gravity image.
Yolanda Prospect Uranium Mineralisation
The Yolanda Prospect has one major south to north trending Eyre Formation palaeochannel. The palaeochannel splits into two separate branches towards the middle of the Yolanda Prospect around a basement high. Both branches of the palaeochannel are uranium-bearing based on downhole logging.
The highest uranium grades seen in the Yolanda Prospect are associated with floodplains on the edges of the main palaeochannel. Drillhole YORM028 had a peak grade of 1258 ppm eU3O8 and 3m @ 646 ppm eU3O8 from a depth of 124.2m metres on the edge of the western branch of the palaeochannel. As shown in Photo 1, the drill samples showed a mix of sand, gravel and some clays with evidence of an oxidised fluid moving through it.
Uranium mineralisation was also identified in the weathered basement and basement in numerous drillholes, especially in close proximity to the palaeochannel. This mineralisation seems to be unique to Yolanda since it wasn’t seen at Saffron or Bridget.
The basement at Yolanda was often noted to be a sandstone unit, in contrast to the dominant chlorite schist and albite altered igneous basement seen at Saffron and Bridget.
What this suggests is that there is a large volume of uranium-rich fluid moving through the Yolanda palaeochannel and that these uranium-rich fluids are entering the porous sandstone unit on the edges of the paleochannel where uranium is being precipitated.
chairman, Dr Colin Rose said: “Of the 3 review areas so far, Yolanda has the smallest number of historical holes, and is therefore also the most underexplored of the 3 review areas to date. We also now know that at Yolanda, most of these historical holes missed the interesting targets –– i.e. most missed the palaeochannel as well as the corresponding floodplains –– so the full extent of uranium mineralisation at Yolanda remains untested to date.
The identification that a huge 8km of the main Eyre Formation palaeochannel runs through the Yolanda Prospect makes this Marmota’s THIRD exciting uranium exploration target at Junction Dam.
The next and final stage of the Junction Dam review will be focusing on the NW corner of Marmota’s Junction Dam tenement immediately adjacent to where Boss has just completed their own drilling program at Jasons. Boss’s best grades come
from the Jasons area."
