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Abstract
During the early 1970's a number of exploration companies made a series of uranium discoveries in the Cape Cross area. Prospecting in this area was directed at secondary uranium mineralization (generally carnotite) associated with calcrete palaeochannels. The first of these was at Mile 72 along the road between Henties Bay and Cape Cross. This was followed by Goldfields of South Africa also in the Mile 72 area and then by Falconbridge in an area to the northeast of Mile 72. Rand Mines made a discovery along the road leading to the Strathmore Tin mine. Two small ore-bodies were discovered, one at Mile 72 and the other to the northeast. The Mile 72 body was found to be around 386,000 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 0.27 kg/t U3O8. A cut-off grade of 0.08 kg/t U3O8 was used. The northeastern deposit was much larger, at some 3 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.212 kg/t U3O8. A portion and a possible extension of the northeastern deposit lies within Xemplar's EPL permits. It has been found that a broad zone of uranium anomalies links these two uranium deposits. The zone is approximately 60 kilometres long and up to 2 kilometres in width, it is reasonably continuous along its length and appears to correlate with a well-developed palaeochannel.