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Location: 25 km SW from Whyalla, South Australia, Australia
Suite 2, 128 Bowen Street, Spring HillPO Box 338 Spring Hill, Qld 4004BrisbaneQueensland, Australia4000
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The Samphire Project is comprised of one uranium deposit (Blackbush) and a small uranium prospect (Plumbush) approximately 5 km south of Blackbush.The uranium mineralisation at Blackbush occurs in horizontal tabular lenses (50-90 m depth) in sand-dominated basal sediments of the Eocene Kanaka Beds within a Tertiary palaeochannel system. The palaeochannel is incised into the Proterozoic Hiltaba granite (Samphire Granite) which has a variably weathered saprolite surface at its contact with the Kanaka Beds. The Kanaka Beds comprise cyclic fluvial quartz dominated sands and gravels intercalated with silts and clays with fine grained carbonaceous material towards the top of the sequence. The Kanaka Beds are overlain by the laterally continuous Miocene Melton Limestone (marl and limestone), the clay dominated Pliocene Gibbon Beds and a cover of Quaternary sediments.The mineralisation at Blackbush is roll-front style uranium mineralisation occurring in up to 3 subhorizontal zones which are constrained within the upper, middle, and lower lithologies of the Kanaka Beds. The common uranium minerals at Blackbush are uraninite and coffinite, common for this class of uranium deposit. The cumulative strike length of the deposit is approximately 2.7 km. Width of mineralisation across strike averages ~300 m, with widths of up to 450 m in some areas. The mineralisation occurs within a confined aquifer contained within compacted but porous and permeable sand units (Tertiary Kanaka Beds). The Tertiary aquifer is confined above by two regionally extensive confining layers namely 16-20m of clay and marl (Melton Limestone) and 18 to 22m of plastic clays (Gibbon Beds). Underlying the Tertiary aquifer is 50 - 70 m of weathered granite sediments (clay) which separates the Tertiary aquifer from a Fractured Rock Aquifer (FRA) at depth. Aquifer testing shows no hydraulic connection between the Tertiary aquifer and the upper strata and no hydrogeological connection between the FRA and the Tertiary aquifer due to the effective clay confining layer. Groundwater associated with the mineralisation is highly saline (35,000-60,000 TDS), more than that of seawater (~40,000 TDS) and contains radium (Ra226) between 1.8-357 Bq/L categorising it as suitable for industrial use only. Further exploration for future uranium mineralisation potential, including the potential for the Plumbush prospect to become a satellite deposit.
