Overview - Kingoonya Palaeodrainage System Project
UraniumSA regards the Kingoonya Palaeodrainage System as its best exploration asset for sediment-hosted uranium mineralisation. It contains known uranium mineralisation at the Warrior and Elbara prospects (outside our tenure) and our Peela Swamp (Tarcoola), Bradman Outstation (Muckanippie) and Blackoak Bore (Kingoonya) prospects.

In regional exploration, the primary tool used to map out palaeodrainage systems is airborne electromagnetic surveying (AEM). The AEM system is a rapid and cost-effective method of mapping variations in the electrical restivity of the earth. The contrasting restivity of the various geological units enables them to be differentiated in the resulting imagery - for example, massive granite has a higher restivity than a palaeochannel saturated with salt water, but the difference in the raw image between deeply weathered basement and palaeodrainage sediments is much less and the contact accordingly more difficult to identify in the imaging.

UraniumSA flew an AEM survey across the entire inferred extent of the palaeodrainage within its tenements in 2007. This survey successfully mapped the architecture of the central portion of the palaeodrainage confirming that it is continuous for over 400km east-to-west, with its eastern headwaters rising towards the area of Roxby Downs and discharging downstream to the west into the Eucla basin. The 200kn east-west extent of the palaeodrainage within the tenements is interpreted to contain in excess of 340km of channels.

As measurements are obtained from down-hole electrical logging of exploration drill holes, interpretations of the AEM data are continually refined and the interpreted trace of the palaeodrainage improved.