Eclipse Metals has cleared a crucial hurdle as it negotiates a regional land access agreement in the Northern Territory and launches an exploration campaign at its Devil’s Elbow uranium-PGE prospect. The company has reached an agreement with the traditional owners to enter into negotiations to approve exploration across the two new leases that surround Devil’s Elbow.
This new exploration tenure overlies a highly prospective region in the world-class Alligator River Uranium Field which the company says has been left largely untouched by previous explorers.
Eclipse Metals Executive Chairman, Carl Popal said:
“The potential granting of these two additional exploration licences will allow further exploration to the south of the Devil’s Elbow prospect in an area never before explored for uranium and PGE metals and to the east along the Ranger Fault zone. Several extensive first order radiometric and seismic anomalies remain untested within ELA 31770 and ELA 31065 – these remain priority exploration targets and will be assessed once Land access is granted.”
Eclipse’s Devils Elbow prospect lies 285km east of Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory and forms part of the company’s larger, Liverpool uranium-PGE project. Its tenure covers more than 1,400 square kilometres of the world-class Alligator River Uranium Field which is home to the high-grade Ranger, Nabarlek and Jabiluka uranium mines and is once again becoming a hot bed of exploration activity.
Eclipse joins a star-studded cast in the Alligator River Field, some of which are amongst the world’s largest mining companies and sector specialists including Rio Tinto, Cameco, DevEx and Vimy Resources. This move by Eclipse comes on the back of skyrocketing metal prices with gold heading towards US$2,000 an ounce whilst a forecast shortfall in uranium supplies is pushing the energy metal towards an impressive US$72,500 per tonne.
Eclipse Metals is a Perth-based resource sector explorer with tenure in both Queensland and the Northern Territory. The company’s comprehensive 8,000 square kilometres of ground covers some of the country’s most prospective mineral terranes with Eclipse looking to track down a diverse range of high-value metals including gold, platinum, palladium, manganese, vanadium and uranium in particular.
Eclipse’s first cab off the rank at Liverpool in the Northern Territory, is the Devil’s Elbow prospect east of Rio’s Jabiluka and Ranger uranium mines. Previous exploration over the prospect area has returned outstanding grades of uranium and precious metals including samples grading an impressive 5.8 per cent uranium, 28 g/t palladium and a ripping 38.1 g/t gold.
The presence of untested geophysical anomalies to the south of the Devil’s Elbow prospect has prompted Eclipse to expedite the grant of the two tenements surrounding the high-grade target. The company has received the nod now from the traditional owners at Oenpelli and can proceed to negotiate an exploration and mining agreement over the tenure through the traditional owner’s legal representatives, the Northern Land Council.
The access agreement is now being drafted by Eclipse and is set to be presented to the traditional owners once the final terms have been agreed by both parties.
Eclipse is well positioned to take advantage of the looming supply shortage in the uranium market with the bonus of skyrocketing precious metal prices. With high-grade results already in the bag at Devil’s Elbow, Lucifer’s pot looks set to boil over as Eclipse expands its search through the world-class province in the coming months.
Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
