East Kimberley Overview (100% Navigator)
Navigator retains five projects in the East Kimberley region which formed the basis of its initial public offering. The tenements are 100%-owned and are located close to the sealed Great Northern Highway. The main commodity focus consists of rare earth metal-uranium at the Cummins Range project and nickel-copper-platinum and zinc-copper at the Eastman and Laura River projects.
Navigator's first pass RC drilling at Cummins Range during 2007/08 resulted in the discovery of a geologically scarce, high-grade rare earth-uranium-phosphate deposit.
Navigator joint ventured the Eastman and Laura River projects to Magma Metals Limited (Magma) in 2006 to enable a core focus on the Leonora gold project. Magma has a right to earn a 70% interest at the Eastman and Laura River projects, with Navigator retaining a 30% free-carried interest to a decision to mine.
View East Kimberley Project Location
Cummins Range Rare Earth Project (100% Navigator)
The Cummins Range project is located 130 kilometres southwest of Halls Creek in the East Kimberley, Western Australia and is prospective for carbonatite-hosted rare earth metals, uranium, niobium, tantalum and phosphate. The deposit is similar in style to the Mt Weld deposit, WA.
Navigator completed 9,293m of RC drilling in the central portion of the Cummins Range diatreme in 2007/08, where significant REO (rare earth oxide) mineralisation was discovered in a carbonatite by CRA Exploration Pty Ltd in the late 1970's. A review of the project by Navigator indicated that historical drilling was too shallow and wide-spaced to provide a definitive test of the potential.
Navigator's drilling returned multiple thick intersections of high grade rare earth metals together with broadly coincident uranium and phosphate. Better high grade REO drill intersections include: 48m at 3.2% REO, 48m at 3.5% REO, 64m at 3.3% REO, 24m at 4.0% REO and 16m at 5.2% REO. Better uranium intersections include: 44m at 881ppm U3O8, 24m at 798ppm U3O8, 56m at 324ppm U3O8 and 40m at 354ppm U3O8.
View Cummins Range Project Overview/Aeromagnetics
The REO-uranium-phosphate mineralisation is up to 50m in thickness and is mainly developed in a sub-horizontal geometry within deeply weathered regolith developed over carbonatite and pyroxenite rocks. Primary zone high grade uranium mineralisation (8m at 1,378ppm U3O8) is locally present.
Resource modelling confirmed an open-ended zone of high grade rare earth oxide of 1.1 million tonnes at 3.5% REO, associated with a thicker halo of low grade mineralisation of 2.5 million tonnes at 1.3% REO.
The resource estimate is based on drilling that covers only a small portion of the Cummins Range diatreme and there is excellent potential to expand the size of the deposit through further drilling. The JORC classification of the resource will be reviewed when analysis of the 1m sample results is finalised. This will enable the assessment of the heavy rare earth metals (not yet included in the resource estimate), as well as niobium, tantalum, zirconium and yttrium, prior to a revised resource estimate. In addition, uranium and phosphate mineralisation have the potential to add significant value and are regarded as likely by-products of REO mining and processing.
The Cummins Range deposit is similar in size and grade to several other REO deposits slated for potential production including Kangankunde, Thor Lake and Hoidas Lake, and there is excellent potential to expand the size of the deposit through further drilling. It is amenable to open pit mining and the deeply oxidised nature of the deposit enhances the scope for low cost beneficiation. The average relative mix of light rare earth oxides and low thorium levels at Cummins Range compare favorably with other well known deposits such as the Mt Weld rare earth project.
Eastman Ni-Cu-PGE& Zn-Cu Project (Magma Earning 70%)
The 295 square kilometre Eastman project, located 115 kilometres southwest of Halls Creek, is prospective for nickel-copper-platinum mineralisation associated with the 20 kilometre-long Eastman Bore intrusion, and for volcanogenic massive sulphide style copper-zinc-lead-silver-gold mineralisation associated with the Koongie Park Formation.
Magma completed ground EM surveys during 2007/08 and confirmed several conductors associated with coincident airborne VTEM and soil geochemical Ni-Cu-PGM anomalies. Drilling of these targets continues.
Magma outlined an Inferred Mineral Resource of 1.5 million tonnes at 1.8% zinc, 0.7% copper, 0.7% lead and 15.7g/t silver at the Eastman VMS prospect in 2007. The mineralisation is open at depth and along strike to the west. Further drilling is planned to test for potential extensions to the resource.
Laura River Ni-Cu-PGE, Cu-Zn & Cu-U Project (Magma Earning 70%)
The Laura River project, 35 kilometres southwest of Halls Creek, contains occurrences of several types of mineralisation including nickel, copper, zinc, uranium and gold. Magma's principal targets are nickel-copper-platinum mineralisation associated with mafic-ultramafic intrusions, and copper-zinc and copper-uranium mineralisation associated with the Koongie Park Formation and Tickalara Metamorphics, respectively.
Magma completed ground EM surveys during 2007/08 and confirmed several conductors associated with coincident airborne VTEM and soil geochemical Ni-Cu-PGM anomalies. Drilling of these targets continues.
Wills Creek Ni Project
The Wills Creek project, located 80 kilometres north of Halls Creek, contains several nickel and copper occurrences in a geological setting similar to the nearby Savannah and Copernicus nickel deposits. The project contains several nickel and copper occurrences in a geological setting similar to the nearby Copernicus nickel deposit where mining commenced in July. Navigator continues to assess a number of advancement options for the project, including joint venture.
Glidden Au-Cu Project
The Glidden project is located 110 kilometres west-southwest of Halls Creek and targets gold-copper mineralisation associated with the Glidden Fault. The most advanced prospect within the project area is the Hardman prospect, which consists of sub-outcropping quartz, limonite and malachite-impregnated fault and breccia zones developed over a 7 kilometre x 2 kilometre area. Mineralised stockworks, extensive wallrock alteration and oblique quartz veins are developed in some of the quartz-limonite reefs, which extend up to 17 kilometres along strike. Selective rock chip sampling of the exposed quartz-limonite reefs has returned results up to 3.0g/t gold, 200g/t silver, 23.6% copper, 13.5% lead and 3.53% zinc. Six wide-spaced diamond drill holes by a previous explorer in the late 1960's detected widespread anomalous gold up to 1.8g/t, with localised copper values up to 4% from non-continuous, down-hole sampling.