URANIUM - High grades at Rossarden prospects

Minemakers" uranium prospects in the Rossarden area of Tasmania are characterised by very high grades, according to Minemakers" managing director Andrew Drummond.

The prospects were discovered during the first uranium boom in the 1950s but Andrew Drummond says the assessments of the time were hampered by drilling constraints. He says Minemakers aims to further test the prospects in conjunction with drilling of the company"s flagship Storey"s Creek and Aberfoyle tungsten and tin projects.

There are two Rossarden prospects of immediate interest - the Tasmania United Uranium prospect and Castle Carey.

The former contains very high grade mineralization with past assays attaining as much as 13.6% U3O8, or 300 lbs/tonne. The mineralization is contained in a fault zone and was followed underground for about 27 metres. Drilling was limited to only three holes, each of less than 50m length.

Historic reports of the Castle Carey prospect indicate the potential for a very large deposit at medium grades. Uranium mineralization was discovered in a black shale stratigraphic unit 2-3 metres thick and contained in a fault-bounded block about 6km x 0.7km in extent. Limited past trench sampling resulted in the reported conclusion that grades would be about 0.1% or 2.2 lbs/tonne U3O8. In the mid 1950s that grade was not economic, but is potentially so at today's uranium prices.

Andrew Drummond says: "This is a classic uranium play where weathering and leaching of hot granites have apparently provided uranium which was deposited on these extensive reducing strata."

Mines & Resources Tasmania is flying a detailed radiometric and magnetic geophysical survey over the Rossarden area as part of its larger North East Tasmania survey.

Minemakers has commissioned infill flight lines at its own cost to allow better definition of the targets, and differentiation of the strata-bound anomalous areas from those in the hot source granites.

Minemakers intends to concentrate first on Castle Carey that is considered to have potential to contain large tonnage deposits. It has been mapped in several localities, with local radiometric anomalism, beyond the discovery location.

The company also has about 1000sqkm of target stratigraphy within its tenement holding at Wondarah in the Northern Territory. Minemakers' intended next phase of investigation is to field assess the radiometric prospects.

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