Balladonia Uranium Project
The Balladonia Uranium Project is located between Balladonia and Norseman and is divided into three major groups, Heartbreak, Balladonia and Malcolm. The 40 tenements cover an area of 6,563km², and these include the extensive lignite deposits, which, it is proposed, form a favourable environment for the formation of uranium mineralisation.
The projects were the subject of exploration programs by uranium companies including Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation of Japan (PNC), Rio Tinto Exploration Pty Ltd (RTE) and Utah Development Co in the 1980s. Historical results include extensive gamma logging and assays for uranium mineralisation.
At the Balladonia Uranium Project, the granitoids in adjacent parts of the Yilgarn Craton are highly radiogenic and a source of uranium during weathering. The uranium is then transported in oxidized saline (acidic) groundwater and deposited where the chemical environment favours the precipitation of the uranium from solution. These may be sites where there are reducing conditions (redox deposits) in porous sandy sediments or where there are rock types which absorb uranium, such as the very extensive known lignites that occur within palaeochannels within the tenements.
The best examples of sandy sediment redox deposits in Australia are in South Australia, for example Beverley, while the best example of a lignite associated deposit is Mulga Rock in Western Australia. The Balladonia Uranium project is prospective for both styles of uranium.
The lignite bearing areas at Balladonia are very large. The area encompassing the lignite associated Mulga Rock deposit is 190km², yet the prospective area of lignites at Balladonia exceeds 1600km². This represents a much greater area for possible capture and concentration of uranium.
At the Balladonia Uranium Project, the Heartbreak group of tenements is the most advanced in terms of previous exploration, and has been the subject of several phases of drilling, gamma logging and assays in the 1980s by RTE.
The favourable features for uranium at the Heartbreak group of tenements are:
- probable hot granites, as a source of uranium;
- large palaeochannels with an extensive hinterland;
- extensive and near to surface lignites;
- an encouraging suite of previous drill holes with high gamma log responses.
A substantial program of mapping, geophysics and drilling is planned to further outline and confirm the depth and width of the palaeochannels, locate new occurrences of mineralisation and to further test previously recorded uranium mineralisation.