el 25685 randall peak annual report - geoscience.nt.gov.au · the geology of the tenement is mostly...

Tianda Resources (Australia) Pty Ltd

Annual Report EL 25685 Randall Peak

Northern Territory

David Jenkins Charles Poynton

Terra Search Pty Ltd For Tianda Resources

September 2008

Perth, 2nd October, 2008

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Randal Peak EL25685 Terra Search For Tianda Resources October 2008

Executive Summary The Randall Peak (EL 25685) project is located about sixty kilometres north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia on The Gardens station. It is accessible from the town via Stuart Highway and unsealed roads and station tracks. The geology of the tenement is mostly Proterozoic Mulga Creek Granitic Gneiss, with some muscovite schist and granites in the southeastern corner. Immediately to the north of the tenement are ranges comprised of the Heavitree Quartzite and a suite of schists and metamorphosed sediments. These rocks host the Winnecke Goldfield and numerous minor mineral occurrences, mostly gold, copper and lead. Investigation of airborne radiometric data revealed some outstanding anomalies just within the tenement’s northern boundary. Though the geological environment appeared unprospective for the usual uranium deposit models, the magnitude of the geophysical response justified some ground investigation. Seven samples were taken beneath flight line anomalies in the north of the tenement. When assayed by ICP-MS, these gave very modest uranium values, ranging from less than 1ppm up to 8ppm. The thorium assays were, however, often extraordinary. One sample in particular returned 267ppm thorium, along with 620ppm Ce and 340ppm La. This corresponded to about 0.2% monazite content, even though a complete leach of these elements was unlikely with a three acid digest. ASTER imagery was obtained for the tenement after the field trip was completed. Examination of mixes of these data revealed a probable alteration zone in the south of the tenement, in schists adjacent to a large fault. Though the uranium assays for this tenement are low, there are encouraging traces of a thorium and rare earth mineralisation that are worthy of follow-up. At the same time, the alteration zone delineated in the south of the tenement should be visited, sampled and mapped.

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Table of Contents Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... ii Table of Figures .......................................................................................................................... ii 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 2 Location and access ............................................................................................................ 2 3 Tenement Status................................................................................................................. 3 4 Regional Geology ................................................................................................................ 4 5 Local Geology ...................................................................................................................... 5 6 Previous Work .................................................................................................................... 6 7 Geophysics .......................................................................................................................... 7 8 Exploration Completed ....................................................................................................... 8 8.1 Navigation ................................................................................................................... 8 8.2 Geological Sampling .................................................................................................... 8

9 ASTER ................................................................................................................................ 10 9.1 Gossan:alteration:host .............................................................................................. 11 9.2 Clay:alteration:laterite with geology and Cu stream sediments .............................. 12

10 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 13 11 Further work ................................................................................................................. 13

Table of Figures Figure 1 Position of EL 25685 (Randall Peak) with relation to Alice Springs and pastoral boundaries .................................................................................................................................. 2 Figure 2 EL25685 Randall Peak tenement subblocks ............................................................... 3 Figure 3 EL25685 with 250k geology ....................................................................................... 5 Figure 4 ELs 25693 and 25685 with 250k geology ................................................................... 5 Figure 5 Cu rock chip (red) and stream sediment (black) geochemistry EL25685 ................... 6 Figure 6 EL 25685 Uranium radiometrics from grid file .......................................................... 7 Figure 7 EL 25685 Point uranium data overlain on 250k geology ............................................ 7 Figure 8 EL25685 Access routes on false colour image ............................................................ 8 Figure 9 EL25685 samples, lithology and assays (U,Th,Ce in ppm) ........................................ 9 Figure 10 EL25685 ASTER discriminant for mapping with mineral occurrences ................. 10 Figure 11 EL25685 ASTER gossan:alteration:host RGB image ............................................. 11 Figure 12 EL25685 ASTER Clay:alteration:laterite with geology and Cu stream sediments 12

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1 Introduction The Randall Peak project was identified as a prospective area by examination of publicly available geophysical datasets. This report covers exploration work undertaken by Tianda Resources (Australia) Pty Ltd over the EL 25690 for the period from the 5th of September 2007 to the 5th of October 2008. Terra Search Pty Ltd, a consulting group with 20 years experience was contracted to complete exploration over this tenement. EL 25685 (Randall Peak) is within the Arunta Block, comprised of Proterozoic quartzite on the northeastern margin, and biotite gneisses and amphibolites in the remainder of the tenement. Along the southeastern margin of the tenement are the Laughlen Metamorphics and some Proterozoic granites. Numerous mineral occurrences are known in the Winnecke Goldfield and to the northwest in the Heavitree Quartzite and associated late Proterozoic sediments. None are recorded within the Mulga Creek Granitic Gneiss, the dominant lithology within the tenement. The area was visited by a Terra Search field crew on June 30th and July 1st, 2008. Seven airborne radiometric anomalies were visited and rock chip geochemical samples were taken for ICP-MS assay. ASTER multispectral satellite imagery was obtained and processed after the field excursion. This was mixed and displayed to provide pseudocolour and RGB images depicting various alteration and mineralisation styles.

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2 Location and access The exploration license is to the northeast of Alice Springs, the closest portion being within twenty kilometres of the town’s centre. The exploration license is situated on “The Gardens” station. The contact details for this property are:- Andrew and Jane Hayes The Gardens Station Alice Springs Ph 08 8956 9764 The exploration license is close to Alice Springs but despite being on a pastoral lease, is poorly served with station tracks. Only the western boundary has access, whereas the anomalies of interest were on the northern side and only accessible by a long hike over a substantial range of hills via the spectacular Winnecke Gorge.

Figure 1 Position of EL 25685 (Randall Peak) with relation to Alice Springs and pastoral boundaries

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3 Tenement Status EL 25685 has its boundaries as shown on Figure 2. It is altogether 27 graticular blocks, covering a total of 85.12 square kilometres. It was granted to Tianda Resources on the 5 September 2007 for a period of 6 years. The 27 sub-blocks are as follows: BID MAP Block No Sub-Blocks Alice Springs 2907 12 ghjkmnoprstu Alice Springs 2908 15 fghjklmnopqrstu

Figure 2 EL25685 Randall Peak tenement subblocks

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4 Regional Geology The Arunta Region is a complex basement inlier in central Australia that has undergone a prolonged history of sedimentation, magmatism and tectonism extending from the Palaeoproterozoic to the Palaeozoic. This interesting array of metamorphosed rock assemblages ranging from high-grade metamorphic to granite gneiss terrains is very prospective for mineral discoveries. The Arunta Region can be subdivided into three, largely fault-bounded areas with distinct geological histories; the Aileron, Warumpi and the Irindina Provinces. The presence of major structures also enhances the Provinces’ potential for ore deposits. The Aileron Province comprises greenschist to granulite facies metamorphic rocks with protolith ages in the range 1865 – 1710 Ma. It forms part of the North Australian Craton and is geologically continuous with the gold-bearing Tanami and Tennant Creek Regions to the north. In contrast, the Warumpi Province, consists of amphibolite to granulite facies rocks with protolith ages in the range 1690 – 1600 Ma and is interpreted to be an exotic terrane that accreted to the southern margin of the North Australian Craton at 1640 Ma. The Irindina Province in the Harts Range area comprises Neoproterozoic to Cambrian metasediments that formed in a major depocentre within the Centralian Superbasin. It underwent high-grade metamorphism and deformation during the Ordovician (480 – 450 Ma). A number of metal occurrences of copper-lead-zinc, gold, tin, tungsten, tantalum, nickel and chromium are known in the Arunta Region. There is significant potential for gold in the northern and western Aileron Province adjacent to the Tanami area and untested base metal prospects in the Warumpi Province The Winnecke Goldfield lies a few kilometres north of the tenement, and many mineral occurrences are mapped in the zone north of the tenement and are shown in Figure 10.

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5 Local Geology The geology of EL 25685 is dominated by metamorphic rocks of the Arunta Block. In fact, on the 1:250000 scale geological map, most of the EL is covered by a single mapped unit, the Mulga Creek granitic gneiss. This is described as “biotite gneiss, amphibolite, porphyroblastic gneiss and granitic gneiss”.

Figure 3 EL25685 with 250k geology

In the southeastern corner of the exploration license are a Proterozoic “ biotite granitic gneiss” (red), “muscovite-biotite schist, quartzite, minor quartzofeldspathic gneiss, amphibolite” (orange), and “retrogressed greenschist facies rocks” (green). A more regional picture with both the exploration licenses overlaid on the 250k geology is shown below.

Numerous mineral occurrences are recorded within the Heavitree Quartzite and associated Proterozoic sediments in and around the Winnecke Goldfield, just north of the tenement. None, however, are known within the Mulga Creek Granitic Gneiss, the dominant lithology of the tenement area.

Figure 4 ELs 25693 and 25685 with 250k geology

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6 Previous Work EL 25685 has an extensive list of open file reports (25 altogether) on historic tenements intersecting the current one. Many of them relate to gold and base metals exploration, but at least one reported anomalous uranium in two drill holes. A close look at the accompanying maps, was necessary to resolve the relevance of many of these reports to the current tenement. The interesting reports included… CR1986-0139, 1987-0073 comprehensive report with stream sediment sampling CR1989-0356 relinquishment report - gold exploration – Not examined probably to North CR1999-0088 63 samples taken with grades in excess of 1g/tonne with all work to the north of the tenement in the Winnecke Gold Field CR1995-0025 extensive literature review Stream sediment and rock chip sampling were performed through much of the tenement, though no assays were available for uranium. These were supplied in company reports CR1986-0139 and CR1987-0073, both pertaining to historic EL4723. Assays were performed for Cu, Pb, Zn, Mn, and Fe only.

Figure 5 Cu rock chip (red) and stream sediment (black) geochemistry EL25685

The rock chips were assayed for Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, Co, and some of them for As, Ni, Co, Ag, W, Sn and (in two cases) uranium. The uranium assays returned 1.2ppm. These assays were in open file company reports for ELs 22761, 10539 and 8164: CR2005-0148, 2004-0714 and 1998-0301 respectively. None of the results were striking.

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7 Geophysics The line data files for the Alcoota-Alice Springs airborne geophysical survey were obtained. Image data was also available, but being at 400m line spacing and having been through a gridding algorithm, does not indicate the exact source of a geophysical anomaly.

Figure 6 EL 25685 Uranium radiometrics from grid file

None of these anomalies appear to have promise as sandstone-hosted or unconformity uranium prospects. No sediments are mapped within the exploration license. However, a substantial radiometric high exists on the northern boundary of the exploration license, close to a major fault system and also the historic Winnecke Gold Mine.

Figure 7 EL 25685 Point uranium data overlain on 250k geology

The line data was processed and a thematic map produced. This provides a clear image as to which data points resulted in the radiometric image above. The points have been overlain on the geology map to give a clear idea which units are responsible for the anomalism.

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8 Exploration Completed Exploration license EL25685 was visited on June 30th and July 1st 2008 from a base in Alice Springs. No direct access to the exploration area was found and it was necessary to hike over a quite high range of hills immediately north of the radiometric anomalies.

Figure 8 EL25685 Access routes on false colour image

Seven rock chip samples were taken in close proximity to the radiometric point anomalies.

8.1 Navigation The tenement boundaries and precise positions and magnitudes of airborne radiometric anomalies were entered into the GPS Trackmaker software package and ultimately a Garmin GPSmap60 instrument. This allowed the crew to very accurately position themselves below the points where the airborne system had recorded anomalous point data. All sample locations were recorded in the field, along with a brief lithological description. The projection utilized throughout the project was Geodetic Datum Australia of 1994 – GDA94.

8.2 Geological Sampling Review of the airborne radiometric data had found seven point anomalies of outstanding magnitude. The area is a few kilometres from numerous mineral occurrences in and around the Winnecke Goldfield and for that reason alone, warranted inspection. Though most of the occurrences were gold, lead and copper had also been reported and are shown in Figure 10.

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The locations and assay results for the seven samples are given in the Appendix, but are summarized on the map below. Uranium, thorium and cerium assays in parts per million have been annotated on the plan. Cerium values were the most interesting of the entire suite of 51 elements determined by ICP-MS, though high lanthanum values were also obtained. Potassium, which is an important gamma radiation source, had concentrations in the range of 0.6 – 0.8%.

Figure 9 EL25685 samples, lithology and assays (U,Th,Ce in ppm)

As can be seen above, the highest uranium assay was 8ppm at MR01, while elsewhere the values were only 0.76ppm up to 3.2ppm. Thorium recorded a number of assays in the range of 12.2ppm to 37ppm, with an extraordinary sample at MR04 returning 267ppm. This was a biotite quartz garnet gneiss, in which there was also 620ppm of cerium and 340ppm La. MR04 must also contain some (at least 0.2%) of monazite Ce0.5La0.25Nd0.2Th0.05(PO4).

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9 ASTER Aster imagery was obtained from Geoimage Pty Ltd of Brisbane and processed by Terra Search Pty Ltd at their Perth office. The following image mixes were obtained:- Mix Algorithm Geological environment Reference Carbonate 13/14 Exoskarn Bierwith, Nimojima, CSIRO Dolomite (6+8)/7 Rowan, USGS Carb/Chl/Epi (7+9)/8 Rowan, CSIRO Clay/Amp/Lat R:(5x7)/62 G:6/8 B:4/5 Bierwith Discrimination - for mapping R:4/1 G:3/1 B:12/14 Abdelsalam - Sultan R:4/7 G:4/1 B: (2/3)x(4/3) Sultan - Abrams R:4/7 G:4/3 B: 2/1 Abrams Goss/Alt/Host R:4/2 G:4/5 B:5/6 Volesky False colour True colour The false colour image has already been utilised for showing sample locations in the previous section. Due to operational delays, however, ASTER imagery was not available during the field program. The ASTER imagery showed dramatic variation of the geology and lithology in the region around the exploration license, as may be seen below. This is shown with mineral occurrence data for the area.

Figure 10 EL25685 ASTER discriminant for mapping with mineral occurrences

Within the tenement, however, there is very little to see. A number of mixes were used to highlight possible gossan or alteration zones, but only one possible Aster anomaly was seen, in the south of the tenement.

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9.1 Gossan:alteration:host

Figure 11 EL25685 ASTER gossan:alteration:host RGB image

Closer examination of the image with the benefit of an RGB gossan:alteration:host image revealed an alteration zone about two kilometres long, about a kilometre from the southern boundary of the tenement. Checking with another mix – clay:alteration:laterite, showed the same feature.

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9.2 Clay:alteration:laterite with geology and Cu stream sediments

Figure 12 EL25685 ASTER Clay:alteration:laterite with geology and Cu stream sediments

When the geological map is underlain and the stream sediment sampling overlain on the Aster image, two things become apparent. The anomaly is within the Proterozoic Laughlen metamorphics (which are a muscovite-biotite schist, quartzite, gneiss and amphibolite) next to a major fault. Secondly, the stream sediment sampling has not covered this area. The anomaly shows some similarities to the responses of the Hevitree quartzites and it may be related to a sedimentary unit, not identified on the map. Had the imagery been available for the field trip, this anomaly would have been investigated.

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10 Conclusions The field program did not reveal any significant uranium mineralisation. The highest concentration of uranium by ICP-MS analysis was 8ppm. However, one sample returned intermediate concentrations of thorium, cerium and lanthanum, consistent with the presence of a low concentration of monazite Ce0.5La0.25Nd0.2Th0.05(PO4). The three-acid digestion of the sample is unlikely to have leached all of these metals into solution, so the actual concentration is probably significantly higher. Aster data showed a possible alteration zone associated with a fault system in the south of the tenement.

11 Further work Re-assay of the MR04 pulp with a four-acid digest may be justified, combined with a full suite of REEs (rare earth elements). Should the re-assay return rather higher concentrations of interesting elements, then the area of MR04 should be revisited with the benefit of a functioning spectrometer. No geochemistry has ever been performed within several kilometres of the anomaly in the south of the tenement, so a sampling program over the zone would be justified. This would be especially the case if further work were undertaken on the MR04 rare earth anomaly.

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Appendix 1 Full ICP-MS assay results for EL 25681 The rock chip and soil samples in the following files were assayed by ALS Chemex in Queensland, using ICP-MS in a three-acid digest (ME-MS41). This assay was for the following elements with the detection limit in parentheses. All values are in parts per million. Ag (0.01), Al (100), As (0.1), Au (0.2), B (10), Ba (10), Be (0.05), Bi (0.01), Ca (100), Cd(0.01), Ce (0.02), Co (0.1), Cr (1), Cs (0.05), Cu (0.2), Fe (100), Ga (0.05), Ge (0.05), Hf(0.02), Hg (0.01), In (0.005), K (100), La (0.2), Li (0.1), Mg (100), Mn (5), Mo (0.05), Na(100), Nb (0.05), Ni (0.2), P (10), Pb (0.2), Rb (0.1), Re (0.001), S (100), Sb(0.05), Sc(0.1), Se (0.2), Sn(0.2), Sr (0.2), Ta (0.01), Te (0.01), Th (0.2), Ti (50), Tl(0.02), U (0.05), V (1), W (0.05), Y (0.05), Zn (2), Zr (0.5) Sample State MGA_N MGA_E ZONE Ag Al As Au B Ba Be Bi Ca Cd MR 01 NT 7417374 428488 53K 0.02 10500 0.5 <0.2 <10 150 12.65 0.01 600 0.01MR 02 NT 7417470 427964 53K 0.02 20300 0.7 <0.2 <10 680 0.94 0.06 26400 0.06MR 03 NT 7417316 427762 53K 0.01 13000 0.3 <0.2 <10 200 0.69 0.01 1500 0.01MR 04 NT 7417097 427714 53K 0.01 13500 <0.1 <0.2 <10 430 0.28 0.02 2700 <0.01MR 05 NT 7416974 427722 53K <0.01 12700 0.1 <0.2 <10 150 0.21 0.01 1200 <0.01MR 06 NT 7416780 427740 53K 0.01 10400 0.2 <0.2 <10 140 0.3 0.01 2300 <0.01MR 07 NT 7416644 428129 53K 0.02 15500 0.2 <0.2 <10 490 0.18 0.02 8500 0.01

Sample Ce Co Cr Cs Cu Fe Ga Ge Hf Hg In K La Li MR 01 67.7 3.6 24 0.44 15 66700 3.99 0.17 0.18 0.01 0.008 5600 32.4 2.9 MR 02 74 23.6 8 1.17 42 73700 11.9 0.29 0.17 <0.01 0.058 5300 25.2 1.9 MR 03 62.2 9.6 31 2.88 10.5 24100 7.5 0.14 0.17 <0.01 0.042 8100 30.5 6 MR 04 620 5.8 6 1.12 4.3 19100 8.52 0.48 0.07 <0.01 0.013 6600 340 3.6 MR 05 72.5 4.3 7 0.61 3.7 16100 5.59 0.12 0.15 <0.01 0.016 8200 39.7 7.2 MR 06 117.5 4.4 4 2.31 3.3 30300 7.09 0.16 0.44 <0.01 0.024 6000 59.5 3.4 MR 07 194.5 7.1 9 0.61 7.3 30900 8.28 0.24 0.28 <0.01 0.026 9300 90.5 5

Sample Mg Mn Mo Na Nb Ni P Pb Rb Re S Sb Sc Se MR 01 6300 106 0.96 700 1.38 9.6 800 3.8 31 <0.001 300 <0.05 7.8 0.4 MR 02 8000 526 0.8 2400 0.97 5.9 6170 3.5 36 <0.001 400 0.12 17.6 1.1 MR 03 5700 201 0.46 500 1.41 12.7 410 2.6 112.5 <0.001 400 0.05 3.9 0.3 MR 04 3500 126 0.25 1300 1.28 5.3 510 25.9 70 <0.001 300 <0.05 3.2 0.7 MR 05 8000 165 0.65 1700 0.57 3.7 70 4.9 52 <0.001 200 0.06 4.3 0.3 MR 06 2900 148 0.24 900 1.26 2.1 650 5.5 70.3 <0.001 200 <0.05 6.5 0.7 MR 07 4800 186 0.89 1200 2.13 3.2 3090 6.2 68.3 <0.001 300 0.06 6.8 1.4

Sample Sn Sr Ta Te Th Ti Tl U V W Y Zn Zr MR 01 2.5 5.7 <0.01 0.01 17.2 880 0.11 8 9 0.16 10.1 35 5.9 MR 02 1.6 27.9 0.01 0.02 6.8 2240 0.17 2.51 78 0.19 37.8 82 4.2 MR 03 3.1 9.6 <0.01 0.01 12.2 2370 0.62 1.78 46 0.11 8.69 33 5.6 MR 04 0.8 14.8 <0.01 <0.01 267 1280 0.37 3.2 18 0.14 17.4 32 1.7 MR 05 1.8 6.5 <0.01 <0.01 17 1180 0.25 1.13 19 0.07 9.78 20 5.2 MR 06 3.3 4.5 <0.01 <0.01 23.9 1480 0.35 1.47 13 0.09 16.5 24 12.8 MR 07 1.4 12 0.01 0.01 37 2250 0.32 0.76 18 0.09 44.8 38 10

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