Melkior and Santoy team up on uranium in Quebec

With the hot uranium market, Melkior Resources (MKR-V) and Santoy Resources (SAN-V) shares rose with the announcement of their new joint venture uranium property at Lac Laparre in the Otish Mountains of northern Quebec.

Santoy shares were up 12%, or 12, to $1.20 on a volume of 740,000 while Melkior shares rose about 21%, or 5, to 29 on a volume of three million.

The property has two known uranium occurrences.

The Marc-Andre uranium occurrence is located at the northeast end of the property, where in the 1980s Uranerz Exploration and Mining (now Uranerz Energy (URZ-A)) investigated a number of trenches with highly altered fault breccia adjacent to and within a gabbroic dike. The best grab sample assayed 0.26% U₃0₈.

The J. Robert occurrence, at the southwest part of the property, is a boulder train of angular, altered, brecciated radioactive sediments, and lies adjacent to a fault zone discovered through geophysics testing.

Neither occurrence was investigated by drilling because of the collapse of the uranium market in the 1980s, Melkior reported.

Spot uranium prices have more than tripled since 2004, from an average of $18.32 a pound to $48.10 in 2006 and $72 in early 2007.

The companies plan to drill this summer once they confirm the historical data.

Marc-Andre and J. Robert appear to be similar to the nearby Strateco Resources (RSC-V, SRSIF-O) Matoush property. Strateco has reported drill intercepts up to 2.1% U₃0₈ over a core length of 12.4 metres. Matoush was discovered in the 1980s by Uranerz as well.

The companies will pay $10,000 cash, 200,000 shares of Melkior and 40,000 shares of Santoy to International Royalty (IRC-T, ROY-X) for the property.

As well, the original vendor of the property will receive a 2% royalty interest of which 1.5% may be purchased for $1 million any time before commercial production.