By: Staff Writer
Puranium Energy has announced the results from a property-wide remote sensing and spectral processing survey completed by Perry Remote Sensing LLC on its Exclusive Prospecting Licenses 7646 and 8084 located in the Erongo region.
Remote sensing interpretation identified two paleochannel systems cut into the basement of EPL-7646 in areas that are predominantly under cover. The paleochannel in the northern area of the EPL extends over 10km while the one in the south extends over 5km. The paleochannel systems coincide with both historical targets and new targets generated through mineral maps.
The remote sensing programme included the processing, analysis and interpretation of ASTER and Landsat Satellite data over the Property and over areas surrounding the Property with known occurrences of similar mineralisation including the Langer Heinrich and Koppies deposits.
The remote sensing survey covered an area of 2,383 km2 encompassing the above properties as well as other known uranium deposits in the vicinity. By using the pre-mining remote sensing data, the Langer Heinrich deposit (Paladin Energy) could be used as a model site of known similar mineralisation characteristics. The approach has been successful in identifying strong spectral matches for mineralised calcretes at the Koppies deposit which is approximately 34km southwest of the Property.
Overall, the compilation of mineral models, paleochannel interpretation, perched water table documentation during dry and wet seasons, as well as structures generated 30 targets on the Property. Using the regional airborne radiometric data, 11 of these targets have been prioritised for further investigation.
“The remote sensing techniques used to map structures and to model mineralized calcretes, subsurface paleochannels, ground water flow directions and sites of intense evaporation have been a cost and time-effective means of narrowing down search areas by highlighting targets that have the potential to form calcrete-hosted uranium deposits,” commented President and CEO Jason Bagg.
“Puranium will be looking to validate the remote sensing results on the ground and believes the properties present an exciting exploration opportunity, supported by the presence of appropriate source rocks upstream, significant deposits within the same drainage basin and downstream of the property, mineral mapping targets coinciding with airborne radiometric anomalies, and the identified targets within the property sharing similar characteristics as deposits of the same target mineralisation style,” Bagg added.
EPLs-7646 and -8084 are located in the Erongo region, within the contemporary ephemeral drainage basins south of the Swakop River. Paleochannels within these basins are associated with five of the larger surficial or calcrete-hosted uranium deposits of the region – Langer Heinrich, Tumas, Tubas, Aussinanis and Koppies. The paleochannels tend to be buried with little or no obvious surface expression to identify them. Calcrete-hosted uranium deposits form when uranium is leached by groundwater from uranium-rich granites and is transported in groundwater through permeable sediments in paleovalleys. In arid areas, intense evaporation can cause changes in the chemical composition of the water and result in the precipitation of the uranium bearing mineral carnotite.
EPL-8084 is characterised by outcrops of granitic basement and Swakop group units with incised gorges some of which are covered by calcrete terraces. Mineral maps in the western area of the EPL indicate the potential for a 2.5km long mineralised paleochannel coinciding with a strong airborne radiometric signature.
