What’s So Great About Canada’s Athabasca Basin: Joe MazumdarExcerpt frrom Uranium Investing News Interview:
UIN: Looking back at the Athabasca Basin — particularly Patterson Lake — based on the current available data on uranium discoveries in the Patterson Lake Camp, can you help us understand what direction the uranium trend appears to be going?
JM: At the Patterson Lake South project, work to date, including their summer drilling program (11,000m) which is 40 to 45 percent complete, suggests a fertile east-northeast share zone that is at least 1.0 km long and remains open to the east-northeast and west-southwest. To date drilling indicates that the U3O8 mineralization pitches to depth to the east-northeast. They have intersected high-grade U3O8 mineralization over 50m grading ~6.6-percent U3O8 at their R390E zone at a downhole depth of 95m. The relatively shallow depth to mineralization suggests the potential for a low technical risk method of extraction (open pit) versus unconventional underground methods.
UIN: Okay. So given these directions of mineralization, which companies look to be best situated to take advantage of the uranium mineralization in Patterson Lake?
JM: To the west, companies with ground exposed to the Patterson Lake South trend include Forum Uranium (TSXV:FDC) to the west and along strike. And to the east, there is NexGen Energy (TSXV:NXE). NexGen has a 3,000-meter drill program they’re just beginning. Others include SkyHarbour Resources (TSXV:SYH), Athabasca Nuclear (TSXV:ASC), Noka Resources (TSXV:NX) and Lucky Strike Resources (TSXV:LKY). Recently, Makena Resources (TSXV:MKN) has entered into an option agreement to acquire 6,687 ha of land proximal to the Patterson Lake South area from CanAlaska Uranium (TSX:CVV).
UIN: What has made Patterson Lake and the Athabasca Basin overall really promising?
JM: The Athabasca Basin promises higher than the global average for U3O8 grade in a geopolitically stable jurisdiction with access to first world infrastructure depending on the location. There was an article recently by the EIA which indicated that 83 percent of the U3O8 supply from foreign sources. Geopolitical risk and security of supply is an issue for nuclear power plants into the future when supply tightens such that, in our opinion, places like the Athabasca Basin should demand a premium. However, the technical risk and high capital costs of the unconventional underground mining methods are an issue.
What has made the Patterson Lake so compelling at this stage of exploration and resource delineation is the potential for high-grade uranium mineralization (>2 to 3 percent U3O8) with along a strike length of at least 1km that is close to surface (60 to 70 meters average depth to top of mineralization at the westernmost zone). The potential amenability to open pit mining and conventional underground presents a lower barrier to entry for potential suitors. Although the project is located on the southwest margin of the Athabasca Basin and far from existing processing plants, there is was a process facility at the former Cluff Lake mine, located 70 to 80 km to the north, that produced over 60 Mlbs of U3O8 over a 20 year mine life. Based on the drilling with assay results to the end of the winter 2013 program, we have modeled a resource of about 20 Mlbs grading at 2 to 3 percent at two zones. Also, metallurgically, so far, the multi-element assays suggest that there are no deleterious elements that would make extraction problematic. Assay results are still pending (first weeks of September) from the current summer 2013 program of 11,000m (2 core rigs) which is 40 to 45 percent complete.
Link to full interview: https://uraniuminvestingnews.com/15789/whats-so-great-about-canadas-athabasca-basin-joe-mazumdar.html