Boss Energy has announced the commencement of a new infill and scout drilling program at its Jason’s deposit, located approximately 13km north of the Honeymoon Mine, with the deposit underpinning a Honeymoon expansion study.
The company hopes the new drilling program will provide important geological and hydrogeological information, help test for continuity and extensions to existing mineralisation and provide validation of historical drilling.
Jason’s, along with the known satellite deposits of Gould’s Dam, Billeroo and Sunrise, will form the basis of a study on increasing the forecast production rate to more than 3Mlb/annum U308 equivalent (from 2.45Mlb nameplate capacity) or an extension of mine life
The current extent of the Jason’s satellite deposit covers a strike length of 2.5km and is hosted by Eyre Formation sediments within the Yarramba palaeovalley approximately 13km north of the Honeymoon mine.
The area has been subject to drilling periodically since the early 1970s, with the most recent program completed by Boss in 2016. Drill line spacing across the deposit is still relatively coarse, ranging from 100m to more commonly up to 250m.
The drilling program is designed to provide important geological and hydrogeological information for the Eyre Formation sediments that host the uranium mineralisation. This program will comprise a combination of resource infill and step-out rotary mud drilling, with the aim of both confirming and extending the continuity of identified mineralised zones along with confirmation/upgrade of a number of historical drill results within the resource model.
All holes will be logged with Boss’ inhouse Prompt Fission Neutron (PFN) tools, along with a combination of Borehole Magnetic Resonance (BMR), neutron porosity, formation density and calibrated gamma tools. This downhole logging suite will provide a detailed picture of the geological and hydrogeological setting of uranium mineralisation across the deposit and will ultimately be used for future infill and/or step-out drilling in the area.
Boss’ Managing Director, Duncan Craib, said, “In parallel with the impending start of production at Honeymoon, we are driving our organic growth strategy.
“Satellite deposits such as Jason’s will help underpin our expansion study, which is aimed at increasing the inventory and production rate.
“This will also enable us to leverage the existing infrastructure at Honeymoon and capitalise on the growing demand for uranium from tier-one locations such as Australia.”
