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Standard Uranium grants Canary option to Mamba
2023-12-27 11:12 ET - News Release
Mr. Jon Bey reports
STANDARD URANIUM SIGNS DEFINITIVE AGREEMENT TO OPTION CANARY PROJECT IN ATHABASCA BASIN
Standard Uranium Ltd. has signed a definitive option agreement, dated Dec. 20, 2023, with Mamba Exploration Ltd., an arm's-length company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Pursuant to the option agreement, the optionee has been granted an option to earn a 75-per-cent interest over three years in the 7,302-hectare Canary project located in the eastern Athabasca basin. The option agreement gives effect to the term sheet previously signed with Allora Resources Pty. Ltd., dated Oct. 30, 2023, which was assigned to the optionee.
The option is exercisable by the optionee in three stages, summarized in an associated table. During the first stage, the optionee can earn a 50-per-cent interest in the Canary project by completing cash payments totalling $200,000, arranging for the issuance of $200,000 worth of optionee shares to the company and incurring $3-million of expenditures, all within the first two years of the option.
After earning a 50-per-cent interest in the Canary project, the second stage will commence. During the second stage, the optionee can increase its interest in the Canary Project to 75 per cent by completing a further cash payment of $100,000, arranging for the issuance of a further $100,000 worth of Optionee shares to Standard Uranium and incurring an additional $3,000,000 of expenditures, all within the third year of the Option.
Jon Bey, CEO and Chairman, commented: "The Company is pleased to welcome the Mamba exploration team to the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan. We are excited to confirm the Canary project will have three partner-funded years of exploration run by our technical team. The Canary project has exceptional potential for a high-grade (1) unconformity-related uranium discovery, and we are looking forward to the inaugural drill program in H1 2024."
Canary project
The company's Canary project is situated in the Mudjatik geological domain where several recent discoveries have been made, including IsoEnergy's Hurricane deposit 11 km directly to the south, and is significantly underexplored relative to adjacent magnetic low/electromagnetic ('EM') conductor corridors.
The Company completed a high-resolution ground DC/IP survey on the project in 2022, providing valuable structural and lithological information in the area to identify conductive bodies and potential fault systems. Significant resistivity-low anomalies are present along the northern conductor on the project, potentially representing substantial hydrothermal alteration zones in the sandstone and proximal to basement conductors.
Additionally, legacy GeoTEM data defining the southeastern EM corridor on the project is directly comparable to the response and scale of the GeoTEM conductor which hosts the Roughrider/J-zone uranium deposits futher to the south. Highly anomalous geochemistry and favorable alteration was returned from historical drill hole CRK-137 along the southeastern conductor, providing an exceptional follow-up target. The project is drill-ready with multiple overlapping geophysical anomalies having been identified on the property, coinciding with previously identified conductive corridors and anomalous historical drill results.
"Our exploration thesis and targeting strategy in this exciting district had been bolstered by the high-quality geophysical surveys and interpretations completed last year," said Sean Hillacre, President & VP Exploration for the Company. "Our technical team and new partners at Mamba are excited to begin drilling the significant anomalies identified on Canary for the first time, exploring for high-grade1 unconformity-related uranium mineralization."
1 The Company considers uranium mineralization with concentrations greater than 1.0 wt% U 3 O 8 to be "high-grade".
Summary of Option Agreement Terms Option Stage Cash Shares Exploration Operator Equity Earned expenditures Fee (10%) Year 1 $100,000 $100,000 $1,000,000 $100,000 - Year 2 $100,000 $100,000 $2,000,000 $200,000 50% Year 3 $100,000 $100,000 $3,000,000 $300,000 25% Total $300,000 $300,000 $6,000,000 $600,000 75%
If within five years of completing the second stage, a bankable feasibility study on a defined mineral resource is completed, the optionee has the option to acquire the remaining 25-per-cent interest in the Canary project by making a payment to the company equivalent to the value of the remaining 25-per-cent interest, with such value determined by an independent third party.
Upon completion of the first two earn-in stages on the Canary project, the parties intend to form a joint venture for the further development of the project. During the first two stages of the Option, the Company will act as the operator of the Canary project and will be entitled to charge a ten percent operator fee on exploration expenditures. Following exercise of the Option, the company will retain a one-and-one-half percent net smelter returns (NSR) royalty on the Canary project, of which one-half percent may be purchased back at any time for a one-time cash payment to the Company of $500,000.
The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed, verified, and approved by Sean Hillacre, PGeo, president and vice-president, exploration, of the company and a qualified person as defined in NI 43-101.
About Standard Uranium
We find the fuel to power a clean energy future Standard Uranium is a uranium exploration company and emerging project generator poised for discovery in the world's richest uranium district. The company holds interest in over 199,095 acres (80,571 hectares) in the world-class Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan, Canada. Since its establishment, Standard Uranium has focused on the identification, acquisition, and exploration of Athabasca-style uranium targets with a view to discovery and future development.
Standard Uranium's Atlantic, Canary, Ascent, Corvo and Rocas projects, in the eastern Athabasca basin, comprise twenty-three mineral claims over 29,520 hectares. The eastern basin projects are highly prospective for unconformity related and/or basement hosted uranium deposits based on historical uranium occurrences, recently identified geophysical anomalies, and location along trend from several high-grade uranium discoveries.
Standard Uranium's Sun Dog project, in the northwest part of the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, is comprised of nine mineral claims over 19,603 hectares. The Sun Dog project is highly prospective for basement and unconformity hosted uranium deposits yet remains largely untested by sufficient drilling despite its location proximal to uranium discoveries in the area.
Standard Uranium's Davidson River project, in the southwest part of the Athabasca basin, Saskatchewan, comprises ten mineral claims over 30,737 hectares. Davidson River is highly prospective for basement-hosted uranium deposits due to its location along trend from recent high-grade uranium discoveries. However, owing to the large project size with multiple targets, it remains broadly under-tested by drilling. Recent intersections of wide, structurally deformed and strongly altered shear zones provide significant confidence in the exploration model and future success is expected.