Crescent seeks Paraguay uranium

Between 1976 and 1983, Anschutz Corp., a private, Denver, Colo.- based U. S. oil company and its joint-venture partners Korea Electric Power and Taiwan Power Co. spent roughly US$30 million evaluating more than 25,000 sq. km of continental sandstone outcrops in central and southeastern Paraguay.

Low uranium prices in the mid- 1980s, however, brought their efforts to an end. Today, Crescent Resources (CRC-V, CRCFF-O) is reaping at least some of the fruits of their labour.

Relying partly on historical data from its predecessors and partly on its own drill results, the Vancouver- based company has filed a technical report on the 5,045-sq.- km Colonel Ovieda uranium property.

The report draws on results from 28 holes Crescent drilled on the property, 11 of which intersected significant uranium mineralization greater or equal to 0.03% uranium over intervals ranging from 0.3 to 5.58 metres.

For its part, Anschutz’s work centred on a large belt of Permo- Carboniferous-age continental sandstones representing the western flank of the Parana basin, and included airborne radiometric and magnetic surveys, detailed geological mapping, and ground geophysical and geochemical surveys, the technical report states.

Of the eight diamond-drill holes Anschutz completed in the early eighties, seven of which were in the Tres Corrales target area, four holes encountered anomalous radioactivity at depths ranging from 30 to 150 metres.

In total, Anschutz drilled about 65 widely spaced holes on the Oviedo property and of those, 21 showed significant uranium values.

Anschutz intersected uranium mineralization in drill holes ranging from 0.115% U3O8 over 10.2 metres to 0.351% U3O8 over 0.3 metre in sandstones and siltstones.

One of the holes (272-T-3) intersected 0.02% uranium over 3.9 metres at a depth of 243 metres, and 0.03% uranium over 0.6 metre at 247 metres depth.

In general, the drill core samples collected contained low-grade uranium mineralization with values ranging from 0.6 ppm uranium to 7.4 ppm uranium, the report states.

Overall, the report recommends continued reverse-circulation (RC) drilling at Tres Corrales and a regional exploration program on the larger property.

Crescent signed an agreement with Coronel Oviedo Mining in April 2007 to earn a 70% interest in the Coronel Oviedo project, and started a systematic exploration program including the compilation of previous results and RC drilling in the Tres Corrales area.

The Vancouver-based junior explorer recently traded at about 17 a share with a 52-week trading range of 15.5-57. It has 30.6 million shares outstanding.