Shares in West Perth-based gold and uranium explorer Metex Resources Ltd gained more than 11 per cent a day of good news, with the highlight being the granting of two South Australian uranium exploration licences.
Shares in West Perth-based gold and uranium explorer Metex Resources Ltd gained more than 11 per cent a day of good news, with the highlight being the granting of two South Australian uranium exploration licences.
The full text of a company announcement is pasted below
Metex Resources Ltd is pleased to announce that the first of its applications for Olympic Dam style mineralisation have been granted in South Australia. The tenements are EL3650 and EL3651, located at Lake Eyre and Coombs Springs. The Company has also been advised that further applications both within South Australia and Western Australia are expected to be granted shortly.
These two tenements cover an area of 400 sqkm and are located in similar terrain to that hosting the giant Olympic Dam mine, as well as Prominent Hill and Carrapateena. The tenements were selected following a regional scale generative program undertaken earlier this year targeting the Gawler Craton and Stuart Shelf in the search for Cu-Au-U-REE mineralisation such as Olympic Dam.
Olympic Dam has long been recognized as a unique setting with a total resource inventory exceeding 2 billion tonnes of ore. It has a number of analogies with other prospective areas in the Cloncurry region of Queensland and the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Using the extremely high quality public domain data set available for South Australia as supplied by Primary Industries and Resources SA, a specific evaluation of geological, geochemical and geophysical attributes of the region was completed. The results were then combined to produce a prospectivity weighting for the area under review. The tenements acquired have the highest possible prospectivity weighting, with weightings equivalent to the three most prospective areas in this part of South Australia (Olympic Dam, Prominent Hill and Carrapeteena).
Currently, all available open file exploration data for areas either close to or within the tenements has been obtained, and is being reviewed with the intention of completing work programs and budgets by early 2007. Fieldwork is planned to follow shortly thereafter.
The Company has also been advised that further applications made earlier this year in South Australia and Western Australia have progressed to the stage where they will be granted early in 2007. Since the applications were lodged, all available public domain data relating to previous uranium exploration (principally during the late 1970's and early 1980's) has been obtained and is currently being reviewed. This Uranium Initiative is being managed by Dr M. de Angelis, a geologist by profession, who has extensive experience in uranium exploration, both within Australia and elsewhere. Dr de Angelis formally managed the exploration arm of the Italian government's uranium exploration company, AGIP Resources Ltd and associated subsidiaries in Australia and Canada.
