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WESTMORELAND URANIUM PROJECT : "Lagoon Creek"
Laramide Resources owns 100% of the Westmoreland Uranium Project through its acquisition of a private Australian company, Tackle Resources. Laramide trades as Lagoon Creek Resources in Australia, a 100% subsidiary of Laramide.
 Briefly, the project is located in northwest Queensland near the Northern Territory border, not far from the northern coast. It can be accessed both from the city of Mt Isa (350 km) which has an airport and from Karumba (260 km) which has a Port Facility. Karumba can be accessed via the town of Burketown (130 km) which is located near the coast on the Burke River.
The Westmoreland Project was discovered by Mount Isa Mines in 1956 and has had a long history of exploration. Most recently it was held by Rio Tinto Exploration from 1990 until 2000.
Rio Tinto completed a pre-feasibility study which included infill drilling, detailed metallurgical test work and resource calculations. This work was focussed on three deposits Redtree, Huarabagoo and Junnagunna. There are a further 39 uranium occurrences throughout the project area. This work completed by Rio Tinto, showed that the uranium mineralization was readily amenable to acid leaching and had low acid consumption with high uranium recoveries. (“Geology of Australia and New Guinean Mineral Deposits.” Published by the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. “Westmoreland Uranium Deposits” Author G M Rheinberger et al). Laramide believes that potential exists to enhance the robustness of the project.
 In 2009, Mining Associates of Australia updated an independent National Instrument 43-101 technical report. The updated mineral resource report estimates indicated mineral resources at Westmoreland totalling 36.0 million pounds of uranium (U3O8) that are contained in 18.7 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.089% U3O8, and an additional 15.9 million pounds of uranium (U3O8) contained in 9.0 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.083% U3O8 which are classified as inferred mineral resources. Total resources at Westmoreland are 51.9 million pounds of U3O8, which has an in-ground value at current spot prices of US$ 2.3 billion.
 In addition to this GRD Minproc has completed a scoping study on Westmoreland. The scoping study was very robust economically, estimating production of around 3.0 million pounds of U3O8 annually at production costs around US$ 20 per pound. The initial mine life is for 11 years with a strong liklehood of this being increased to greater than 15 years with further drilling. The direct and indirect capital for the project is estimated at US$ 214 million. Payback on current prices would be less than 2 years. Mining would be with conventional open pit and processing by an acid leach. These are both methods which are not technically challenging. At current uranium prices the project has the potential to generate a very large pre-tax cash flow per year.
Laramide completed a two-phase drill progam at Westmoreland during the 2007 - 2008 field seasons. This included more than 8,800 metres and over 160 hole in the Red Tree and Junnagunna zones. These results were included in the updated mineral resource estimate released in April 2009. The next phase of drilling is planned for the latter half of 2009, after the annual rainy seanson. Environmental baseline studies will continue throughout 2009. The rainy season is important to monitor, and surface and ground water will continue to be studied. A stream sediment program will also be undertaken in the area surrounding known deposits.
 In recent history, acquiring mine development permits in Australia for uranium was complicated by a policy platform of one of the two main political parties in Australia - the Australian Labor party ("ALP"). the policy platform, most commonly known as the Three Mines Policy, restricted uranium mining to existing permitted operations. At the April 2007 Natioanl ALP Conference, the ALP voted in favour of overturning the policy. This is a major milestone in the federal political climate, as the Liberal Party is already pro-uranium mining.The change in the ALP stance means that both parties at the federal level support uranium mining.
Although the sentiment at the federal level has evolved progressively, permitting is dealt with at the individual State government level. the current Queensland government is an ALP government which has traditionally been opposed to new uranium mine development, and the current Premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh, has thus far made no public announcements indicating her intension to change despite the change in the federal ALP stance. In November 2007, the Labor government was elected federally, overturning the former Liberal government under John Howard. In the fourth quarter of 2007, Laramide announced the appointment of The Honorable Tony McGrady, A.M. to its Advisory Board, giving Laramide critical insight into the ongoing political evolution of Queensland’s energy policies.
Mr. McGrady is a former ALP Member of Parliament for Queensland (Mount Isa) and has led the ministries of Mines and Energy, among others. In September 2008, a state election was held in Western Australia, which had been the state most commonly compared to Queensland, as it had large undeveloped uranium deposits and an anti-uranium mining policy. The result of that election, announced September 8, 2008, was an overturning of the Labor government in favour of a new Coalition Government led by Liberal Colin Barnett. The new government reversed state policy which had opposed uranium mining to a policy which favours uranium mining. This reversal left Queensland as the only state now in opposition to the federal Labor policy.
In late February 2009, Anna Bligh (Queensland Premier) called an early election for March 21, 2009. Uranium mining emerged as a peripheral election issue, but principally in the context of potential job creation as the Liberal opposition accused the Bligh government of denying job opportunities to the electorate that could be created if the uranium policy were overturned. The Bligh government response was that the promised job gains seemed modest and that they remained unconvinced of the merits of allowing a uranium mining industry to develop in the State. Despite pre-election polling which predicted a near 50/50 result or even a minority Liberal coalition government, the election outcome was a Labor victory, with the Labor party losing some seats but retaining the majority. Laramide has, to date, not been active in lobbying the government (either Federally or in Queensland) in regards to policy matters but will likely adopt a more assertive approach going forward. The Company believes it has strong local support for the Westmoreland project and believes Australia has a pre-eminent strategic position in uranium as a secure supplier of choice to the world’s nuclear utilities. Maximizing this competitive national advantage will not be possible until a consistent, coherent policy exists in all States and for this reason Laramide remains optimistic that a change in Queensland policy will be given consideration in due course.
Drill Location Maps
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Proposed 2010 Exploration
(updated 28 Jan 2010) |
Westmoreland 2009 Drilling Program
(updated 9 Mar 2010) |
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Red Tree Resource Area
(updated April 23, 2009) |
Westmoreland - Proposed Drilling 2009
(updated 17 Nov 2009) |
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Press Release 17 Nov 2009 - Figure 1
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Redtree - Jack Lens
(updated Jan 13, 2009) |
Red Tree Drill Location Plan
(updated Oct 2, 2008) |
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Westmoreland Drill Results Table
(updated Jan 28 2010) |
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Section Drawings (updated 9 Mar 2010)
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NORTHERN AUSTRALIA URANIUM PROJECT
The Westmoreland Uranium Project occurs in a major Proterozoic belt which runs from Darwin in the north west to Mt Isa in the southeast. This belt covers a distance of 1600 kilometres and contains a number of world class base metal mines including Mt Isa Cu, Ag, Pb, Zn, Century Zn, and Cannington Ag deposit. It is recognized as one of the great mineralized belts of the world. In addition there are a number of uranium deposits including the world class Ranger & Jabiluka properties (Energy Resources Australia) and Koongarra (COGEMA Australia Pty) in the Northern Territory and Westmoreland and Valhalla (Summit Resources) located in Queensland.
Currently a uranium exploration boom is taking place in the Northern Territory. Some of the world's largest companies, including ERA, Cogema and Cameco, are focusing on the Northern Territory. This is due to the presence of large, low production cost, uranium deposits in the Northern Territory. Recently the Australian Federal Government also came out in support of uranium exploration and mining in the Northern Territory.
Since purchasing the Westmoreland Project, Laramide has acquired a large exploration land package of highly prospective ground in both the Northern Territory and Queensland. To date Laramide holds in excess of 680,000 hectares which covers the Westmoreland conglomerate, the host of much of the mineralization in the district.
These 680,000 hectares include two joint ventures, one with Nupower Resources Ltd (NUP: ASX,) a publicly listed Australian company and Hartz Range Mines, a private Australian company. Laramide has also staked extensive ground holdings in both the Northern Territory and Queensland.
During 2005, Laramide flew a high resolution radiometric and magnetic geophysical survey over Westmoreland and the two adjacent joint venture project areas. This survey readily picked out Westmoreland and all of the other known mineralized deposits. The survey also indicated a number of other high priority targets, which either were not previously known or previously had been given a lower priority. During 2007 Laramide plans a major field campaign focusing on the new targets generated by this geophysical survey. Up to 10,000 metres of drilling will be completed on these targets.
During the 2006 field season Laramide commenced exploration on both of these Joint Venture areas. To date a number of promising projects have been identified including the following:
- North East Westmoreland located on the Nupower Joint Venture area
- El Hussein South located on Nupower JV
- El Hussein located on the Hartz Range JV project
In a drill program in 2006 at North East Westmoreland, Laramide completed 2,818 metres of Reverse Circulation Drilling “RC” in 23 drill holes. Five of the drill holes did not reach target depth due to excessive water in flows. These holes will be deepened in the coming field season. The best results from this drilling are as follows:
- NEWM204 - 5 metres @ 0.18 % U3O8 from 124 metres
- NEWM222 - 5 metres @ 0.06 % U3O8 from 73 metres
- NEWM216 - 2 metres @ 0.05 % U3O8 from 65 metres
Of interest NEWM204 appears to have intersected steep dipping uranium mineralization which was not previously recognized at this project.
Sampling on the El Hussein project area identified the following zones from surface sampling:
- 1 metre @ 0.55 % U3O8
- 7 metres @ 0.45 % U3O8
- 1 metre @ 0.14 % U3O8
This sampling is over a strike length of 400 metres and occurs within a steep dipping structure. Previous drilling has been vertical and failed to test this zone. The target is for both steep and stratabound mineralization at depth. Laramide plans to test this zone during the 2007 field season.
Work will continue on these projects in 2007 field season. Drilling is expected to start in June 2007 to continue on The North East Westmoreland Project. This will be followed up by testing of the El Hussein target and further grass roots work. |
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Related Documents:
- Review and Resource Estimate of the Redtree Group of Uranium Deposits (PDF 3.2Mb)
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Related Links:
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