The following is a question and answer session with Carl von Einsiedel, P. Geo., the CEO of Brades Resource Corp. (TSX: V.BRA, Stock Forum).
Brades is a uranium and gold explorer with properties in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin and British Columbia, Canada.
The company has just announced an earn-in option agreement with Fission Uranium Corp. (TSX: V.FCU, Stock Forum) to explore the prospective Clearwater West uranium project in the Basin. Here, Mr. Einsiedel comments on the recent news and Brades’ entry into the uranium sector.
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Q: Brades recently
partnered with Fission Uranium to explore Clearwater West in the Athabasca Basin
https://www.bradesresource.com/news/. Why enter the uranium sector at this time?
The timing is right for uranium and partnering with Fission Uranium is a tremendous opportunity. We believe the uranium sector hit the bottom earlier this year and is now being driven upwards by solid fundamentals. The spot price has begun to increase and companies such as Cameco Corp. (TSX: T.CCO, Stock Forum) and Areva have been very clear on what they expect to see.
In fact, Olivier Wantz, who heads Areva’s mining division, was quoted by Business Week, saying “Power utilities need to boost orders of uranium by 2015 or face potentially soaring prices as new atomic plants come on line in addition to reactivated reactors in Japan.”
Look at the number of reactors currently under construction, the end of the HEU agreement (goodbye 24 million lbs. of secondary uranium supply) and the major uranium projects that stalled in the last twelve months. Demand is going to rise and supplies are under pressure.
There’s nothing better than a timing play and we feel we’re entering the uranium sector at the just the right moment. What’s more, Fission Uranium has Canada’s most successful technical team operating in the Athabasca Basin. When the opportunity came up to work with them on their Clearwater West project, we quickly realized this would enable us to gain a stake in a highly attractive property in the world’s premiere high-grade uranium district.
Q: Why is the Clearwater West project something to get excited about?
The short answer is that it’s the right location, attractive geology and the right operator. The project is located of the western side of the Basin, immediately adjacent to the south of Fission’s Patterson Lake South (PLS) project.
The west side of the Basin has historically been under-explored. Almost everyone thought you had to be on the east side of the Basin and that there were no more shallow deposits to be found. Fission changed all that with their recent shallow-depth, high-grade uranium discovery at PLS). It’s actually hard to overstate the impact that the PLS discovery has had on uranium exploration models in the Basin – particularly on the west side. Fission used several innovative techniques and their last drill season had something like a 96% mineralization hit rate.
As you can imagine, there was a huge staking rush as other companies tried to claim land as close to the discovery as possible. Of course, by that point Fission already had other projects in the immediate area staked out and Clearwater West is one of them. In terms of the geology, it’s prospective for hosting structurally controlled high-grade uranium mineralization.
In fact, it lies within a magnetic low corridor and covers historic airborne EM anomalies, which could be extensions of EM conductors identified on the PLS property. Fission considers the property a priority and they have the technical expertise to approach the project in the right way.
Most recently, there has been a beehive of exploration activity in the area with the adjoining companies Adlrin Resource Corp. (TSX: V.ALN, Stock Forum) and Forum Uranium Corp. (TSX: V.FDC, Stock Forum) completing airborne geophysics surveys and following up with ground work. This of course has created even more excitement in the area.
Q: What can you tell us about your partner, Fission Uranium?
Fission is a big player in the uranium exploration field. Their technical team has made two major high-grade discoveries in three years, including PLS which, quite frankly, is the most exciting new high-grade, shallow depth discovery in the world. President, COO and Chief Geo, Ross McElroy, has been instrumental in four of the last nine major discoveries in the Athabasca Basin and earlier this year they developed a uranium boulder finding survey technology which is currently patent-pending.
It was the new survey technology and analysis that identified the high-grade boulder field. The team then worked on tracking down the source and made the remarkable discovery that they are currently developing. They’ve also shown to have a knack for radon survey techniques and analysis. Radon is given off by uranium but it’s very light and highly mobile which means finding the source can be tough to say the least. Fission, however, has used it to great effect in drill target assist work.
What this all means for Brades is that we are partnered with the top technical team in the Basin. At a business level Fission is also a great company to work with. CEO, Dev Randhawa, is a big proponent of joint ventures for exploration. In fact, the Fission team made both of their discoveries while in joint ventures and recently finalized a friendly takeover of JV partner Alpha Minerals Inc. (TSX: V.AMW, Stock Forum).
Q: You also have a large project in the south west of the Basin – Lorne Lake. What’s significant about the property?
Acquired earlier this year, Lorne Lake is a large land package in a highly strategic location in the Western Athabasca. The property is approximately 97,500 acres and Brades owns 100% of the uranium exploration rights to this property with no further earn-in requirements.
The Lorne Lake Property is adjacent to land held by Cameco and also has companies such as NexGen Energy Ltd. (TSX: V.NXE, Stock Forum) and Athabasca Nuclear Corp (TSX: V.ASC, Stock Forum) holding land contiguous to the property, so it’s got great neighbors. In fact UEX/Areva will be drilling the property adjacent to Lorne Lake this winter.
The location is particularly promising given that it is situated between two major discovery areas, being Cameco’s Centennial deposit and Fission Uranium’s Patterson Lake South discovery. With favorable geology and extensive regional faulting, including a major cross-cutting fault in the middle of the property, Brades is excited about exploration prospects for the Lorne Lake Property in 2014, either independently or with the addition of exploration partners. I should also add that based on government mag data, the property appears to contain multiple mag low channels, which further increases our interest in the Property.
Q: What can we expect from Brades over the next twelve months?
In terms of our uranium play – Fission has already started exploration work at Clearwater West so we expect to be announcing updates and results as work moves forward. For year one, the $0.7 million budgeted work program will includes of a property scale airborne radiometric survey using Fission’s patent-pending “System And Method For Aerial Surveying Or Mapping Of Radioactive Deposits” as well as an airborne EM geophysical survey.
It’s also anticipated that radon surveys designed to assist in the detection of subsurface uranium occurrences will be conducted in certain areas to assist in prioritizing drill targets.
A host of uranium explorers are hard at work in the Patterson Lake South area of the Basin. However, Brades is one of only two companies (the other being Azincourt Uranium Inc. (TSX: V.AAZ, Stock Forum) to actually have a partnership with the company that started the new uranium rush in the western area of the Basin.
We are also awaiting results of the exploration program we implemented at our BRC gold property in British Columbia and will of course announce the details as soon as we have them, along with our projected plans for the property. Overall, we expect to have strong news flow for Brades over the coming year and we are very pleased with how things are shaping up.
To view the corporate presentation please go to https://www.bradesresource.com/
Disclosure: Brades Resources Corp. is a Stockhouse client