Lincoln uses history to unearth SA uranium on Eyre Peninsula

Lincoln Minerals has sniffed out high-grade uranium mineralisation at its 100 per cent-owned Eridani project on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula after completing an initial sampling program that confirmed historic reports of uranium at the site.

The Eridani project is focused around the Minbrie West quarry, a site once mined for marble and talc, but which was abandoned in 1944 after SA Government inspectors discovered elevated levels of radioactivity linked to carnotite – a uranium-bearing mineral. Recent samples collected by Lincoln as part of a reconnaissance mission confirmed the historic findings through portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis.

A field photo of an outcrop sample containing carnotite mineralisation from Lincoln Minerals’ Eridani prospect in South Australia.

Management took 12 outcrop samples from the quarry and noted several high-grade pXRF hits, including one sample reading 9250 parts per million uranium and another coming in at 6219ppm.

While Lincoln stressed that the readings are only an early indication of what treasures may lie beneath, it has submitted the samples for further laboratory analysis and results are expected at the end of next month. The additional analysis will then be critical in determining the broader extent of uranium across the project area.

Adding to the intrigue of the company’s findings, the Eridani project is in close proximity to Alligator Energy’s Samphire play that hosts a significant 17.5 million-pound uranium oxide resource, with a substantial exploration upside of up to some 75 million pounds.

Lincoln now plans to push forward with its exploration efforts at Eridani, with additional mapping and sampling in the next three months set to generate more data to allow it to zero in on future detailed drilling targets.

As part of its overall strategy at site, the company will also be reassessing historical drill core samples that were originally gathered by Centrex Metals during iron ore exploration between 2007 and 2011 and which could reveal further uranium potential. The original drill core logs picked up on possible uranium targets linked to a wide hydrothermal alteration of the Donington suite granites – a formation also underlying the southern and eastern Gawler Craton that also hosts the massive BHP-owned Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine.

Lincoln’s broader SA exploration strategy is aimed at discovering and developing projects focusing on minerals seen as critical for the world’s green-energy transition. With the promising Kookaburra graphite project now under its belt and an additional green iron ore project the company hopes will help deliver on the State Government’s desire to create a green steel industry, Eridani – should it turn out to be a winner – will provide plenty of scope for the company to develop it into a far more sizeable operation.

With a prefeasibility study (PFS) due to be handed down next month on Lincoln’s high-grade Kookaburra graphite project and laboratory results from its latest fieldwork at the Eridani uranium project expected shortly, the company is likely to have the sort of news flow that will put it squarely in the sights of ASX watchers.

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