The Kintyre orebody was discovered by Rio Tinto Exploration in 1985 through surface follow up of a number of radiometric anomalies which had been detected during an airborne survey of the company's leases in the Rudall region. Ground surveys and initial drilling established the presence of a significant orebody at Kintyre, identified from a very small surface outcrop. As figure 2 shows, there are three adjacent areas of mineralisation, Pioneer, Whale, and Nerada. Significant geological potential exists to add to these reserves and to discover new orebodies in the immediate area. The geometry of the Kintyre orebody is represented in section by a shallow dipping lens, highly amenable to open pit mining, with a maximum depth of 150 metres from the surface.
Uranium ore occurs in narrow high grade veins which are concentrated in discrete zones.
The main ore mineral is coarse pitchblende with minor accessories such as native bismuth, copper, lead and zinc sulphides, gold, platinum and palladium. The Kintyre deposit lies within Lower Proterozoic metamorphic rocks which were originally a sedimentary assemblage of limestones, black shales, sandy shales, quartzites and iron formations. These basement rocks have been raised to very high temperatures and deformed by folding a fracturing. Younger Proterozoic sandstones overlie the metamorphic rocks at a contact known as 'unconformity'. This contact extends over the whole Rudall region which, although originally flat-lying, is now tightly folded and sheared.