Authors / CoAuthors
Roach, I.C. | Jaireth, S. | Costelloe, M.
Abstract
The Frome airborne electromagnetic (AEM) survey delivers fit-for-purpose pre-competitive AEM data to aid the search for energy and mineral resources around the Lake Frome region of South Australia. The Survey includes a total of 32,317 line kilometres of high quality airborne geophysical data over an area of 95,450 km2, or 10% of South Australia, at a flight line spacing mostly of 2.5 km, expanding to 5 km spaced lines in the Marree-Strzelecki Desert area to the north. The Lake Frome region contains a large number of sandstone-hosted uranium deposits associated with Paleogene and Neogene palaeodrainage systems flowing from uranium-enriched Proterozoic rocks of the Curnamona Province. Known resources are ~60,000 tonnes of U3O8 including the In Situ Recovery (ISR) operations at Beverley, Pepegoona, Pannikin and Honeymoon, and deposits at Four Mile East, Four Mile West, Yagdlin, Goulds Dam, Oban and Junction Dam. The region continues to be a focus for the South Australian uranium exploration industry, particularly in the southern Lake Frome area and around the flanks of the northern Flinders Ranges. An integrated interpretation approach including a review of sandstone-hosted uranium mineral systems models in the Lake Frome region improved the understanding of mineral systems in this area. This informed the mapping of critical features of sandstone-hosted uranium mineral systems including basin architecture, palaeovalley morphology, sedimentary facies changes, hydrological connections between uranium sources and uranium sinks, and geological structures. A synthesis of pre-existing groundwater flow systems data, isotopic dates of uranium deposits, thermochronology data and zircon provenance data further constrain a landscape evolution model for the Mount Painter and Mount Babbage inliers in the northern Flinders Ranges, affecting the mineral systems models. The AEM data and subsequent interpretation comprehensively remap palaeovalley systems in the southern Lake Frome area and point to the potential for new uranium discoveries in New South Wales adjoining the survey area to the east. The data provide a new understanding of the interaction between range-bounding fault systems and the Mesozoic and Cenozoic stratigraphy around the northern Flinders Ranges and new insights for sandstone-hosted uranium systems models for this area. New palaeodrainage systems to the north of the Flinders Ranges, associated with sandstone-hosted uranium discoveries, have also been interpreted from the AEM data The Frome AEM Survey dataset maps critical features of sandstone-hosted uranium mineral systems, geological surfaces and depth of cover to ~300 m. By providing a regional framework for mineral explorers, the results reduce exploration risk by showing where AEM is effective and what it responds to, and also allows mineral explorers to merge their own tenement scale exploration results and high resolution ground EM or AEM surveys and place them in a regional context.
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nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
79172
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Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
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2601
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- External Publication
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Earth Sciences
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- Published_Internal
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2014-01-01T00:00:00
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