Arianne Makes Switch to Uranium

Gold explorer Arianne Resources (DAR-V, DARUF-O) is jumping on the uranium train.

The company started out in 1997 with a focus on industrial metals, making the shift to gold in 2004. Now, motivated by uranium price and demand, Arianne has decided to put more energy into uranium exploration.

Arianne added geologist Christian Tremblay to its roster recently as the uranium technical advisor. Tremblay has worked on uranium projects in the Otish Mountains of Quebec.

The company acquired the 12.5-sq.-km Natashquan property near the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in Quebec, in December. Arianne based its decision on a model of geochemical anomalies of lake bottoms that showed uranium, copper and rare earth minerals, as well as geological, geophysical and structural information.

In mid-June, the company will conduct a helicopter geophysical survey over the Cote Nord area of its Natashquan project to identify uranium targets, which will be confirmed by further exploration during the summer. Arianne plans to spend $250,000 on the project this year.

The Frank copper-uranium property in Reservoir LG-3 in the James Bay region was also acquired in 2006, but Arianne has yet to do any work on the property. In the summer, a field team will verify the extensions of the mineralized structures.

Arianne conducted a brief prospecting survey on the Mazenod and Paleoplacer properties in hopes of identifying geological units and their possible link to paleoplacer-type gold-uranium deposits. In the early 1980s, Placer Development identified highly anomalous gold samples, but Arianne will test the property for uranium.

Arianne has $2.5 million in cash and $1.9 million reserved for exploration this year.