SASKATCHEWAN - UEX has intersected new uranium mineralization at its 60%-owned Christie Lake project, 9 km northeast of Cameco's McArthur River uranium mine in Saskatchewan.
The project hosts the Paul Bay, Ken Pen and Orora uranium deposits, which have a total inferred resource of 588,000 tonnes with an average grade of 1.57% U3O8 for 20.35 million contained lb. of uranium oxide. The Paul Bay, Ken Pen and Orora deposits remain open at depth and along strike.
The new mineralization was encountered in hole CB-141, located 8 metres above an unconformity. The drill hole returned a radiometric equivalent grade (REG) of 1.17% U3O8 over 2 metres from 498 to 500 metres.
Due to the poor recovery within the mineralized interval in CB-141, REGs are considered to be more accurate representations of uranium concentration than assay grades for the hole. Using downhole probes to calculate REGs is a common practice in the Athabasca Basin to measure uranium concentration in situ within the drill hole.
Hole CB-141 was drilled to test the B Trend that lies 600 metres along strike to the northeast of the historical mineralized drill hole CB-048, which averaged 0.25% U3O8, 2.05% cobalt and 2.32% nickel over 2 metres within a fault structure located 50 metres below the unconformity.
Strong hydrothermal alteration was observed in drill holes collared northeast of CB-141 and in a separate location 1.5 km southwest in hole CB-147, drilled at the southernmost end of the B Trend coincident with another low resistivity anomaly.
In the Orora North area, three holes were drilled to test the southwest margin of the large and strong resistivity anomaly identified at the unconformity north of the Orora deposit and parallel to the Yalowega trend, a 4.2 km corridor with anomalous uranium and indicative hydrothermal alteration that hosts the three known high grade uranium deposits. Strong hydrothermal alteration, including thick dravite clay filled veins, was encountered in holes CB-142, CB-143 and CB-145 along a previously unknown, northwest oriented fault structure.
UEX will propose plans for additional drilling and geophysical surveying at the Orora North area in the first half of 2020 for consideration by its joint venture partner, JCU Canada. JCU is a private company owned one-third by Itochu Corp., one-third by Mitsubishi Corp. and one-third by Overseas Uranium Resources Development.
At press time, UEX was trading at 13 ? per share with a 52-week range of 13 ? to 21.5 ?. The company has 381 million common shares outstanding for a $49.5-million market capitalization.
This story originally appeared on www.NorthernMiner.com.