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Deposit Synonyms
ML 6036; ML 6321; PANNIKIN; PEPEGOONA; RL 18; RL 19; RL 20
Mineral District
Deposit Summary
roll-front type U mineralisation hosted in fluviate sands of the Miocene Namba Formation in the Beverly Corridor Palaeochannel. Total resource 7.7Mt at 0.27% U3O8 (21 000t contained U3O8).
Deposit Description
BEVERLEY, uranium mineralisation hosted by confined, valley fill fluviatile sands of the lower "upper unit" of the Miocene Namba Formation in the informally named South and Central channels. The deposit was discovered in 1969 after systematic drilling away from the Mount Painter Complex. Four ore lenses occur in sand bodies in an inferred NE-trending half graben within the Paralana to Wertaloona Structural Zone, and within a palaeo-drainage about 500 m wide (Beverley Corridor Palaeochannel). Mineralisation is sub-parallel to the Poontana Fault. The Poontana Fault zone is a near-vertical fault that lies immediately to the west of the ore body. Vertical movement along the fault zone appears to have taken place during sedimentation and this appears to have controlled the distribution of the sediments and palaeochannels.
The sand lenses formed a pressure aquifer with three palaeochannels comprising the Beverley aquifer. The aquifer is isolated from the Great Artesian Basin groundwater ~150m below, and the small aquifers of the Willawortina Formation above used for stock watering. The mineralisation is located within 3 main orebodies, north, central, and south, in oxidation interfaces trending NNE for ~4 km. Mineralisation occurs at an average depth of 107 m within 4 sand bodies, each up to 10 m thick within a 40 m wide palaeochannel. The ore bodies are overlain by 110-140 m of well clay-bound sands and gravels, and thinner clays. Impermeable, plastic clay and silt separate the aquifer from the underlying Great Artesian Basin.
The principal ore mineral is coffinite, an uraniferous hydrosilicate. The uranium was derived by the primary leaching of Proterozoic basement rocks in the Mount Painter uranium field which hosts small uranium deposits in hematite-rich breccias.
The total resource was estimated at 7.7 million tonne (Mt) @ 0.27% U3O8 for a contained uranium oxide value of ~21,000 tonne of U3O8 (Heathgate Resources website, 2006). Heathgate Resources Pty Ltd acquired the deposit in 1990, and received Commonwealth and State environmental clearances in April 1999. It was Australia's first uranium mine using in situ leach (ISL) techniques, and was opened in February 2001. Anticipated full production was 1000 tonne/year of U3O8. Production for the period 2001-14 was 8824 tonne U3O8 (includes production of 25 tonne from Pepegoona, ie Beverley North ). Production was suspended December 6 2013 as resources became depleted. The 2018 PEPR records remaining resource is depleted at UOC sales price of US$40/Ib. At US$40/Ib some consideration could be given to mining orebody extensions not yet mined.
In 2008 the Beverley Uranium Mine Extension was approved. Near mine exploration continued with uranium mineralisation identified extending east of the mining lease (Beverley East), and also to the south in an area known as Deep South. Satellite deposits at Pepegoona and Pannikan commenced production in 2010, and 2011 respectively, with Pannikan shut down on 16 July 2013, and Pepegoona on 28 January 2014.
Discovery Year
? 1969
Commodities
Uranium, Uranium Oxide
Ore Minerals
Carnotite, Coffinite, Uraninite
Gangue Minerals
Copper, Lead, Pyrite, Quartz
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