- Junior gas company Armour Energy (AJQ) has announced plans to complete the largest private airborne geophysical survey ever taken on in the Northern Territory
- The survey will begin in early July and be conducted across 20,000-square-kilometres in the NT — an area roughly the size of Wales
- Armour has a large exploration portfolio in the NT’s McArthur Basin Area, with 193 conventional leads and prospects previously outlined across its portfolio
- As such, the airborne survey is designed to help the company de-risk, rank and high-grade existing leads and prospects in the area
- At the same time, the survey is expected to highlight new potential areas of exploration interest along the conventional play fairway
- Armour said one of its main challenges has been to figure out where to focus its exploration efforts given it holds such a substantial amount of land
- The survey, which will be completed by private airborne tech specialist Pinemont Technologies Australia, will address this problem
- Shares in AJQ momentarily tacked on 3 per cent this morning but have since retreated back to the grey line to trade at 3.1 cents each
Junior gas company Armour Energy (AJQ) has announced plans to complete the largest private airborne geophysical survey ever taken on in the Northern Territory.
The geophysical survey, which is slated to begin in early July 2021, will be taken on across Armour’s exploration permits in the Northern Territory and will cover a 20,000-square-kilometre zone — an area roughly the sale of Wales.
Specifically, the survey will be conducted across five NT exploration permits and one exploration application area held by Armour.
Armour said it has a large portfolio of leads and prospects in the McArthur Basin zone of the Northern Territory. In fact, the company claims to have identified 193 conventional leads and prospects across this area.
As such, the airborne survey is designed to highlight new potential areas of exploration interest along the conventional play fairway, while at the same time helping the company de-risk, rank and high-grade existing leads and prospects.
Further to this, the survey can also be used to highlight areas for follow-up ground-proofing.
The survey will take around 35 days to complete and will be conducted across July and August, with survey results expected to be available by September.
Revamping NT exploration
Armour Energy CEO Brad Lingo said today’s news marks an important moment for the company to restart an exploration program across its extensive holding in the McArthur Basin.
“Armour has already demonstrated the hydrocarbon potential of the Batten Trough and Fault Zone, making four discoveries in its initial five well exploration programme,” Brad said.
“Kicking off this airborne survey is the beginning of the company rebuilding the momentum it had with those initial discoveries,” he said.
Brad explained that one of the challenges the company has faced is working out where to focus its exploration efforts given it holds such a substantial amount of land in the Northern Territory.
“We believe that the airborne geophysical survey will hold high-grade key areas of focus when tied together with the historical discoveries, and we expect that the survey will help the company focus on where to target the next phase of exploration,” he said.
Large area, low impact
Armour told shareholders it has contracted private airborne tech specialist Pinemont Technologies Australia to take on the major survey using patented Pinemont airborne audio electromagnetics using passive transient pulses (AEM-PTP) technology.
This tech is cost-effective, quick and non-invasive and will have a low-to-zero environmental impact on the major area over which the survey will be conducted.
“Globally, our patented AEM-PTP system has proven to be successful in helping to mitigate risk associated with identifying hydrocarbon migration pathways,” Pinemont Director Jim Dirstein said.
“These insights often provide focus for our clients’ exploration efforts and their understanding of the resource potential of the asset.”
Nevertheless, it seems investors are happy to wait for the results of the survey before making any major decisions around Armour Energy.
Shares in AJQ momentarily tacked on 3 per cent this morning but have since retreated to the grey line to trade at 3.1 cents each as of 1:57 pm AEST.