Canadian uranium sector prepares for rising tide
Excerpt: For example, Fission Uranium believes its flagship Patterson Lake South (PLS) project in the western portion of the Athabasca basin ticks all the right boxes. “I’m optimistic about there being as significant deposits on the western side of the basin as there are on the eastern side. PLS is starting to show that to be true,” president and COO Ross McElroy told Mining Weekly during an interview. Fission and Alpha Minerals each hold 50% in PLS, and Fission recently announced a proposal to acquire Alpha’s stake in late August, with further details outlined on September 3. Fission’s current drilling programme at PLS is set to end during October, although it has already produced encouraging returns. Mineralisation has been reported as robust, while the company also announced the discovery of a fourth mineralised zone at PLS on August 16. On September 4, the company unveiled assay results for hole PLS13-075 that included 61 m to 115.50 m for 9.08% U3O8. “[The project is] not just high-grade but is also shallow, which makes it easier for us to find the right targets. Being shallow also helps lower the potential mining costs, helps ease the science and assists in the discovery process,” chairperson and CEO Dev Randhawa told Mining Weekly in the same interview. “The Athabasca basin is the ‘Saudi Arabia of uranium’. On average, grades here stand at 2% versus a world average of 0.8%,” Randhawa added. “We’ve got the mills, we’ve got the infrastructure and, most importantly, we have the political will.” Link: https://www.miningweekly.com/article/canadian-uranium-sector-prepares-for-rising-tide-but-developments-in-quebec-worrying-2013-09-20-1