Norfolk Metals confirms uranium at Orroroo
Norfolk Metals has identified uranium occurrences in three target zones within SA’s Walloway Basin.
Norfolk Metals (ASX: NFL) has demonstrated the potential to unlock a new uranium province in South Australia after confirming the presence of uranium at three tested targets in the Walloway Basin.
The occurrences lie within the explorer’s Orroroo project and are located about 5km apart with the remainder of the Walloway Basin remaining untested for uranium.
Norfolk executive chairman Ben Phillips said the confirmation of uranium via spectral gamma and prompt fission neutron (PFN) well logs recorded during a downhole geophysical survey provides important proof of concept for the prospectivity of the basin for sediment-hosted uranium deposits.
“We cannot understate the implications this has for the potential of a greenfields discovery in the Walloway Basin.”
“Typically, sandstone uranium mineralisation is hosted in flat and planar tabular bodies close to surface, and as a consequence, the best discoveries typically occur early in the life cycle of defining a new fertile sedimentary basin,” he said.
The company used a novel approach of reviewing gamma anomalies in historical wells drilled by the oil and gas industry, and which to date had been overlooked by the minerals industry.
Geophysical survey results confirm uranium occurrences
The downhole geophysical survey which confirmed uranium occurrences in all three target zones has now been completed. According to Norfolk, the target zones are at depths considered potentially suitable for proven in-situ recovery methods.
A peak result of 650 parts per million uranium oxide was reported within an interval of 192ppm over 0.5m from a depth of 112.59m.
In addition, the uranium recorded from this survey at expected target depths obtained from historical holes supports the proposed “oxidised tails or interface zones” of roll-front uranium style mineralisation theory proposed by Norfolk’s geology team.
The company is planning to accelerate exploration to a geophysics and roadside drilling campaign to follow-up on these initial results and target potential roll-front style uranium mineralisation.
Walloway Basin a new frontier for uranium?
Interestingly, the Walloway Basin has never been explored for uranium despite being the same age as sediments of the Frome Embayment, which is host to the world-class uranium resources at Beverley, Four Mile and Honeymoon, which Boss Energy (ASX: BOE) expects to restart in the second quarter of 2023.
Norfolk holds 100% interest in two exploration licences covering 659sq km in the basin. The company’s previous understanding of the extent of uranium occurrences is limited to historical drilling undertaken by Linc Energy.