Uranium Exploration Australia has entered a joint venture agreement with Melbourne-based Newcrest Operations to explore iron oxide-copper-gold-uranium mineralisation at the highly prospective Stuart Shelf in the Gawler Craton in South Australia.

The joint venture will be known as the Oak Dam NE JV and under the terms of the agreement, Newcrest has the right to earn 75% interest in EL 3494 by spending a minimum of $3 million in four years.

EL 3494 is on the Stuart Shelf about 50km southeast of the world-class Olympic Dam Mine. The Stuart Shelf is considered highly prospective for copper and gold as well as for base metals and uranium.

Newcrest's initial exploration efforts will involve a two-stage gravity survey of EL 3494. The first stage will complete existing survey coverage across the entire tenement and the second stage will involve more detailed surveys in areas of interest to identify drilling targets.

Under this agreement, UXA retains its full interests and rights to explore for uranium only, as well as to develop a mine and market uranium from any discovery containing uranium-only mineralisation, regardless of whether the discovery was made by Newcrest or UXA.

UXA managing director Patrick Mutz says: "This agreement provides UXA with an opportunity to take advantage of the broad knowledge, resource base and expertise of a very experienced and successful exploration and mining company such as Newcrest, while retaining UXA's core rights to utilise its own expertise and resources to explore for and exploit uranium deposits".