The Mtonya Project is located 100 km east of the district capital of Songea. The prospect has seen highly anomalous trenching, followed up by drilling that yielded mineralised zones at depth. Work continues to develop a uranium resource at Mtonya and on regional targets on more than 14,000 km2 of tenements.
Reconnaissance work is being conducted on seven additional licenses in southern Tanzania.
The Target is a bulk-mineable roll front U3O8 deposit similar to Paladin’s Kayelekera deposit in Malawi.
Interest in Mtonya is 60% after spending A$4,000,000 over a 4 year period commencing in May 2006.
The Geology of the Mtonya leases covers the contact between the Usagaren and Luwegu basins. The Usagaren basement is interpreted to be the source of the uranium mineralisation with the porous sandstone units of the Karoo formation hosting roll front style mineral enrichments.
Trenching was conducted on several targets at the highly anomalous Henri prospect in Mtonya, two of which exposed visible uranium mineralisation.
Subsequent drilling has defined sub-surface zones of mineralisation consistent with channel facies sandstone hosted roll front deposits. The best drilling intersection encountered to date is 7m at 1, 233 ppm U3O8 in uraniferous.
Tanzania has an annual growth rate of 5.8% since 2006. The Mining Act of 1998 legislated a clear exploration and mining regime that guarantees against nationalisation and expropriation with a fair, predictable tax regime. A Chubb Group World Risk Survey in 2006 had Tanzania in the 10 lowest investment risk countries.
Uranium Prices continue to hover near historical highs due to the fundamental demand-supply imbalance. Future prices should remain high due to the alternative that nuclear power provides to CO2 producing power generation and organic growth, plus a dearth of uranium mining projects in the pipeline.
People are in place to provide an urgent impetus to the project. An in-country team featuring full-time geologists and a high quality support staff forms the front line of resources for the Project. Drake-Brockman Geoinfo, a consulting group from Western Australia with significant uranium expertise has also been contracted to provide dedicated project support to the Mtonya Project.
The 2008 Work Plan at Mtonya will aim to further define and extend both surface and sub-surface mineralisation already discovered to date. The planned work includes:
| • Drilling – Mtonya Corridor | Q2-Q3 2008 |
| • Drilling – Grandfather | Q2-Q3 2008 |
| • Drilling – Rufus | Q2-Q3 2008 |
| • Drilling –Moysten | Q2-Q3 2008 |
| • Drilling – Mad Fish | Q2-Q3 2008 |
2007 drilling campaign at Mtonya where sub-surface Uranium values topped 1,200 ppm over a 7m interval.
