Trigon steps into uranium with Utah acquisition

Vancouver – Diamond explorer Trigon Exploration Canada (TEL-V) is branching out into the uranium business, having acquired a land position in central Utah’s historic Marysvale mining district.

Following evaluation of past drill data, the company optioned the Marysville project that includes the historic Phillips property which underwent extensive drilling and a resource estimate.

In the late-1970s, Union Oil drilled two dozen holes in the project area. A few years subsequent, Phillips Petroleum’s uranium subsidiary acquired the project and drilled a further 190 holes totaling almost 35,000 metres at a cost of US$1.6 million. Reportedly, almost all drill holes intersected uranium mineralization.

From the drill data, an historic resource estimate of 680,000 tonnes grading 0.075% U₃O₈ plus a further 2.7 million tonnes of 0.03% U₃O₈ was reviewed containing a total of about 1.8 million pounds of yellowcake. The resource is situated between 100-to-150 metres below surface, with uranium mineralization occurring as a flat-lying, blanket-type supergene enrichment zone within rhyolitic volcanics overlying an intrusive complex.

Geological interpretation, from past drilling, associates the flat-lying mineralization with the margins of a rhyolite dome complex and with zones of siliceous sinter. The host rock is reported as porous and permeable. Testing indicated uranium recoveries of over 90%, indicating potential for in-situ leaching of lower grade material.

From 1952-to-1966, mining in the district extracted about 250,000 tonnes of ore yielding a reported 1.1 million pounds of U₃O₈. Operations primarily targeted vertical epithermal veins that cut a sequence of granites, granodiorites and rhyolite ash flow tuffs. Mineralization was mostly oxide (uraninite and pitchblende) although some secondary mineralization occurs as autunite, torbernite and uranophane. Molybdenum mineralization occurs also occurs with the uranium.

With 34.8 million shares outstanding, Trigon posts a $14 million market capitalization given its recent trading price of 40 per share. The company has a 52-week trading range of 15-to-50, with the upward spike coming on its recent announcement of establishing a uranium exploration division.