The Charley Creek titles lie on pastoral leases to the west-north west of Alice Springs. There are several areas of known uranium mineralisation in central Australia, most of them sediment- hosted deposits in Palaeozoic basins. The Charley Creek area has not been intensively explored for uranium - or anything else for that matter - but has the elements that Crossland believes are necessary for formation of sediment–hosted uranium deposits.
Source of uranium
The expert's report highlights the uranium content of some phases of the Teapot Granite. Previous exploration has located values of up to 0.228% U3O8, in association with secondary uranium mineralisation hosted in the granite. These are of immediate interest in their own right if they were widespread. The most plausible target identified in the expert's report is calcrete-hosted carnotite, or redox-type mineralisation in the fluvial channels associated with carbonaceous matter. The high uranium levels in the Teapot Granite provide an ideal source for these.
Transport mechanism
Uranium is transported in ground water in the models proposed for Charley Creek. In the early 1970s, CRA Exploration Pty Ltd (CRAE) measured U content in several water bores around the project area and these ranged up to 41ppb U. These values indicate that U is mobile in these ground waters, and a deposition site in the channels would accumulate this. Crossland's project are covers a much broader area than was covered by the CRAE study.
Site for deposition
There are two possible deposit types, or possibly a combination of the two types in one deposit as occurs elsewhere in this region, at Napperby. Calcrete is recorded from the fluvial channels and was observed in outcrop during field inspection; lignite is also known, and if a source of vanadium is required to precipitate carnotite, the basic intrusive bodies of the Mount Hay layered complex lie below the fluvial channels to provide this.