Vancouver – After punching just 16 drill holes into the ground at the Amer Lake property in Nunavut, Uranium North Resources (UNR-V) has defined an initial resource that is considerably larger than the historical count.
Amer Lake is now home to 21.4 million inferred tonnes grading 0.04% U3O8, using a cut-off grade of 0.01% U3O8. This Main zone deposit strikes for 1.4 km and stretches across 500 metres width. And geology and geophysics indicate mineralization may extend for another 1.2 km along strike to the southeast, which will be a focus for further drilling.
The Main zone deposit outcrops to the north and dips shallowly to the south, where it become flat-lying. Mineralization is hosted in a magnetic sandstone unit that is traceable with geophysics, a trait the company already utilized in planning its phase I drill program. The company has also identified numerous similar zones within a 10-km radius of the Main zone.
Uranium North used the results of that initial drill program, which comprised 10 reverse-circulation holes totalling 1,210 metres, as well as historical drill data to calculate the resource. In the 1970s a previous owner followed up on the results of an airborne radiometric survey with more than 8,000 metres of diamond drilling. The effort delineated an historical resource of 4.3 million tonnes grading 0.07% U3O8.
And while the new resource is a slightly lower grade, contained uranium oxide has more than doubled from 6.7 million lbs. to 19.3 million lbs. U3O8.
“Establishing Amer Lake as Canada’s newest uranium resource is a major milestone for the company,” said Uranium North’s president Mark Kolebaba. “We have met our initial goal of defining a compliant resource that is double the historic deposit and our low-cost plan to expand Amer Lake to a shallow, large tonnage uranium deposit is well underway.”
Amer Lake is 90 km northwest of Areva’s development-ready Kiggavik project near Baker Lake. Kiggavik hosts 134 million lbs. U3O8at an average grade of 0.23%. Of that, recoverable reserves total 114 million lbs. U3O8, divided among four open-pittable deposits and one underground zone. Last year, the French energy giant initiated the formal review process for developing a mine at Kiggavik and it is awaiting the outcome.
Uranium North’s share price stayed unchanged at 11¢ on news of the resource. The company has a 52-week trading range of 3.5¢ to 25¢ and has 46 million shares outstanding.
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