Avalon granted WA uranium exploration licence

Avalon Minerals Ltd has announced a significant addition to its Western Australian....

  Avalon Minerals Ltd has announced a significant addition to its Western Australian uranium exploration portfolio with the granting of the Lake Barlee Exploration Licence, located some 190km north of Kalgoorlie, which covers part of Lake Barlee and the Raeside palaeodrainage channel in the highly prospective Yilgarn region of Western Australia.The 100% owned Lake Barlee licence covers an area of approximately 48sqkm and is the first application to be granted within the portfolio of 13 Western Australian uranium exploration licences, covering a total area of approximately 1,900sqkm, acquired by Avalon last year from private company Resource Properties Pty Ltd.The tenement is considered prospective for calcrete-hosted uranium mineralisation at shallow depths in a geological setting similar to other known uranium deposits at Yeelirrie and Lake Way in the northern Yilgarn Craton. The surficial geology comprises Playa Lake and other sediments of Quaternary age.Three calcrete-hosted uranium deposits discovered in the 1970’s are located in the same palaeochannel, 80 kilometres downstream (east) of the Lake Barlee Project, at Lake Raeside. These deposits are currently being explored by Energy Metals Limited, as the Mopoke Well Project.Historical radiometric data indicates that uranium channel radiometric anomalism is present in the northeast and the northwest of the tenement associated with the palaeochannel. It seems likely that uranium-bearing Tertiary calcrete lying within the palaeodrainage is masked by non-radioactive recent surficial sediments. Planning is currently underway to commence first pass, wide-spaced auger drilling of these outcropping radiometric anomalies and shallow aircore drilling to test for buried mineralisation. No previous uranium exploration has been carried out on the Lake Barlee tenement.“The granting of the Lake Barlee tenement is a great start to what we believe will be a watershed year for Avalon as we ramp up our exploration programs in 2008,” said Avalon’s Managing Director, David McSweeney.“The fact that the tenement is located in close proximity to known uranium deposits and yet has had no previous uranium exploration of any kind significantly enhances its potential as one of the most exciting uranium exploration opportunities within our portfolio,” he added.