New zone returns high-grade uranium for Hathor

Vancouver – Hathor Exploration (HAT-V) knew the hole was hot – the black core in step-out hole 170 emitted enough radiation to push the scintillometer reading off the scale. Now assay results have proven Hathor hit a new high-grade zone 200 metres away from its Roughrider deposit.

Hathor is exploring the Midwest NorthEast project in Saskatchewan, home to the Roughrider uranium discovery. Hathor first drilled into the Roughrider deposit in early 2008 and in less than two years defined in initial resource for the zone. Indicated resources stand at 116,000 tonnes grading 2.57% U₃O₈ while inferred resources contribute 83,000 tonnes averaging 3% U₃O₈, for a combined total of 12 million pounds uranium oxide.

Collared 200 metres northeast of the Roughrider deposit, hole 170 was drilled to test an alteration zone previously encountered in reconnaissance drilling. The first hit into the zone, hole 147, returned a wide zone of intense bleaching and strong limonitic alteration of the sandstone, with intense desilicification and variable argillization in the 20 metres above the unconformity, but no uranium mineralization. The area was targeted for drilling because it produced a strong gravity low.

Returning to the area, Hathor drilled hole 170. The hole returned two high-grade hits: 10 metres grading 13.44% U₃O₈ and 8 metres grading 27.66% U₃O₈, separated by a 10-metre segment averaging less than 0.05% U₃O₈. Averaging the grades over the barren intermediate segment, the 28-metre interval grades 12.71% U₃O₈ and includes 2 metres of 44% U₃O₈ and 2.5 metres of 71.56% U₃O₈.

One assay from the interval returned 81.9% U₃O₈, the second-highest uranium grade from the project to date. The only hole to return a better grade was hole 116, which cut 2.5 metres of 70.34% U₃O₈, including one assaying results of 84.2% U₃O₈. The intercept from hole 116 is roughly 450 metres away from the hit in hole 170.

“There is a world of opportunity to find more high-grade mineralization, both between these holes and extending outward from them, and from the recently completed resource study we know that high grades can most certainly add a lot of uranium pounds with very little tonnage increase,” said Hathor’s senior project geologist Alastair McCready.

High-grade zones comprise a significant part of the Roughrider resource: less than 10% of the resource tonnage carries more than half of the contained uranium. With that in mind, it is important to note that, in calculating the resource, high U₃O₈grades were cut to 30% in the outer zones and 50% in the high-grade zones, limiting their contributions.

High-grade uranium deposits are often made up of many ‘pods’ of mineralization, which means widely spaced, early stage drilling often fails to capture every pod or returns only limited information about some pods, which restricts resource calculators from extrapolating the pod’s size. For example, several isolated intercepts from Roughrider were not included in the resource calculation, including 69 metres grading 2.33% U₃O₈from hole 30.

Hathor is planning its winter drill program in part around these limitations. Specifically, the company will give priority to areas within the bounds of known mineralization that were not included in the estimate and to areas that have open potential for extension to high-grade mineralization.

Another important aspect of the resource is that the study found Roughrider to carry low grades of common deleterious elements, specifically arsenic and selenium. Other uranium deposit in the Athabasca Basin host higher grades of the toxic metals. Low arsenic and selenium grades would make Roughrider ore desirable for blending with other, dirtier ores.

In announcing the results from Hole 170, Hathor also reviewed other findings from its summer program. The 49-hole program included six reconnaissance holes into the alteration package around hole 170, five reconnaissance holes into a second alteration package that sits another kilometre to the northeast, and 18 holes that hit mineralization within the Roughrider zone.

The best results from the infill drilling at Roughrider include 6 metres grading 11.25% U₃O₈, 3.5 metres carrying 13.58% U₃O₈, and 22 metres of 0.48% U₃O₈. The rest of the infill holes returned intercepts between 50 cm and 9 metres in length, with grades ranging from 0.07% U₃O₈ to 2.3% U₃O₈.

The rest of Hathor’s recon holes, both into the area around hole 170 and into the second alteration zone 1 km to the northeast, returned alteration but no uranium. The cores are now being analyzed for base metals and pathfinder elements.

News of the assay results from hole 170 lifted Hathor’s share price 15¢ or 8% to close at $1.98. The company has a 52-week trading range of $1.30 to $3.69 and has 86 million shares outstanding.