| Tanami Exploration Initiative
Overview
The Tanami region, located approximately 600 km NW of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, has become Australia's premier Proterozoic gold province, with virtually all discoveries made since the mid-1980s. The region is one of the last remaining provinces in Australia capable of hosting multi-million ounce gold deposits. It is currently the host to the 7 Moz Callie Gold Mine and several other 0.5–1 Moz deposits. Despite the operation of major processing facilities and considerable gold production, the Tanami remains under explored.
ERO Mining considers the probability for further discoveries to be high. Outcrop in the region is poor which has led to a lack of geological knowledge. While the discovery history of the Tanami has been essentially continuous since the mid-1980s, proprietary information on discoveries has been closely guarded. The release, by major gold companies of large areas of highly prospective land in the Tanami, has rapidly resulted in a significant increase in exploration activity and further supports the Company's exploration strategy in the region.
ERO formulated its Tanami Exploration Initiative in 2007 and is pleased to advise that its pipeline of tenements has advanced to grant, allowing field exploration to commence.
ERO personnel have extensive experience in the discovery and subsequent development of several gold deposits in the Tanami, including the Callie Gold Deposit currently operated by Newmont.
ERO has secured the rights to explore for both gold and uranium on its Suplejack Project, which lies on Aboriginal Freehold land and for all commodities at the Talbot North Project, situated on Freehold Pastoral Lease land.
Exploration strategies
Gold deposits in the Tanami are associated with major regional NW–SE trending structures coincident with favourable host rocks, in favourable orientations. These lineaments are clearly discernible on regional magnetic images as structural breaks in the magnetic rock units. Regional alteration and potential gold mineralisation is coincident with the loss of magnetic minerals, due to the passage of oxidising, potentially gold mineralising fluids. The Company considers that the rock units of the Dead Bullock Formation have the best chance of hosting major gold deposits.The coincidence of the alteration system, the favourable host rock orientation and second and third order structures are high priority drill targets for ERO.
Airborne EM surveys have been designed to complement the existing datasets by detecting areas of graphite destruction, which led to the discovery of the Callie Gold Deposit.
Major NW–SE tending regional structures and areas of magnetite destruction are clearly visible in geophysical data sets for Suplejack (ELA22655 ERO 100%) and Talbot North (EL27806 ERO 100%). Airborne EM will provide an invaluable additional dataset allowing efficient siting of drillholes. ERO has signed an Exploration Deed with traditional owners at Suplejack, allowing the process to grant to proceed and this is expected to be completed by the end of March 2011. The Deed allows for exploration and subsequent development of both gold and uranium mines. |
