SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, Jan. 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UEX Corporation (TSX:UEX) (“UEX” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the commencement of its 2020 exploration programs at the West Bear and Christie Lake Properties, located in the Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan.
West Bear Property
UEX Corporation is pleased to announce the West Bear 2020 winter exploration program will commence the first week of February and consist of approximately 1,900 m of diamond drilling in 15 holes. The objective of the program is to find new satellite Co-Ni deposits on the West Bear Project along the northern rim of the highly prospective West Bear Dome.
The program will focus on the Umpherville Target Area located 2 km immediately north of the existing high-grade West Bear Co-Ni Deposit. The Umpherville Target Area has several geological and structural similarities to the West Bear Co-Ni Deposit area. Historical drilling in 1977 by Conwest Exploration encountered strong indicative hydrothermal alteration, strong radioactivity and an extensive area of geochemically anomalous nickel over 1 km in strike length that are all features considered favourable for the discovery of both cobalt-nickel deposits and uranium deposits. Historical Conwest Hole ML-77-05 intersected 0.22% eU3O8 over a 5 ft core length at the unconformity and has yet to be successfully followed-up by drill holes. Two attempts by Conwest to drill on-section and down-dip of hole ML-77-05 were unsuccessful when the drill holes were lost when they encountered wide intervals of intense structure and clay alteration. The drill program will also test areas along strike to the northeast of the Umpherville area where historical anomalous cobalt and nickel has been intersected.
The Company is also updating our Technical Report to incorporate the results of the 2019 West Bear Property exploration program. The Company completed 126 holes totaling 11,412.5 m during the 2019 winter drill program and the results from these holes were announced in the Company’s news releases dated February 7, March 18, April 1, April 15, April 30, and May 22, 2019 available at www.sedar.com or UEX’s website at www.uexcorp.com.
Christie Lake Property
UEX will be commencing its 2020 exploration program at Christie Lake in mid-February. Despite the discovery of new mineralization along the B Trend in hole CB-141 that averaged 1.17% eU3O8 over 1.9 m from 498.1 m to 499.6 m (see UEX News Release dated October 29, 2019), UEX will be focusing the majority of its efforts at Christie Lake in the rora North Area in 2020.
In 2019, the Company completed a property-wide DC Resistivity survey that defined a strong and wide anomaly (the rora North Resistivity Anomaly) similar in nature to the resistivity anomalies occurring over the Ken Pen and Paul Bay Deposits. The rora North Resistivity Anomaly is located north of and parallel to the Yalowega Trend, which led to the interpretation that the rora mineralized trend may be offset by a north-trending fault. Subsequent drilling of three holes in the Fall of 2019 at the southwest end of the rora North Resistivity Anomaly defined a northwest-oriented fault structure that contained strong hydrothermal alteration and thick dravite veining, features observed in the three known uranium deposits at Christie Lake (see UEX News Release dated October 29, 2019).
Recently received geochemical results from samples collected from within the altered fault structure in the sandstone column of these three holes show substantial geochemical enrichment of uranium over wide intervals extending as much as 250 m above the unconformity. The uranium enrichment in each hole ranges from 3 ppm to 12 ppm uranium over core lengths of 98-180 m, reaching as high as 44.3 ppm U in one sample. Athabasca uranium explorers consider 1-2 ppm uranium in the sandstone-hosted structures to be of exploration interest. Such sandstone uranium enrichment is often found close to uranium deposits.
To assist the Company in refining drill targets later this year, UEX is undertaking a Phase I geophysical exploration program comprised of a fixed loop electromagnetic survey (“EM”) focused on the rora North area. Additional EM will be completed in the southern half of the B Conductor area. A total of 63 line-km of EM surveying will be completed this winter.
A Phase II program is planned that will consist of diamond drilling in the rora North area to follow-up the 2019 drilling program after the Company interprets the results of the EM survey.
JCU (Canada) Exploration Company Limited (“JCU”), our partner in the Christie Lake Joint Venture, will be diluting their interest in the project. UEX agreed to contribute JCU’s share of all 2020 expenditures.
New Mineralized Structure Discovered at McClean South
UEX completed 3,318 m of drilling in 10 holes in the fourth quarter of 2019 at the McClean South area of the Hidden Bay Project. The McClean South area is located immediately adjacent to and south of Orano’s McClean Lake Operation on-strike of the mined-out Sue Uranium Deposits. The Sue Deposits are a cluster of five uranium deposits that occur over a north-south strike length of 1.7 km hosted within the Sue Fault structure. The southernmost Sue Deposit, Sue E, was mined by open pit. The pit’s margins are located within 50 m of the property boundary.
In the summer of 2019, UEX completed a RadonExTM radon survey covering the northern part of the Telephone and Sue Faults in which several radon anomalies were detected between the two fault structures. Coupled with historic geophysical and geochemical data, UEX believed that faults oriented in an east-north-east direction link the Telephone and Sue Faults. Such linking faults are a key host environment of several of the economically exploited uranium deposits at Cameco’s Eagle Point Mine.
The UEX 2019 drill program successfully intersected two east-north-east oriented fault structures between the Sue and Telephone Faults. Hydrothermal alteration was encountered in both faults. One hole, MCS-009, encountered 0.34% U3O8 over 0.4 m from 183.2 m to 183.6 m within an east-north-east fault approximately 40 m east of the north-east trending Telephone Fault. The mineralization in MCS-009 is very encouraging as it indicates that not only are the linking east-north-east linking structures present, they also have the potential to host uranium mineralization.
The Company will be further evaluating the results of the 2019 program at McClean South in advance of a future drill program.
About the West Bear Cobalt-Nickel Deposit
The West Bear Property is an advanced exploration project located in the eastern Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan, Canada that contains both the West Bear Cobalt-Nickel Deposit and the West Bear Uranium Deposit. The Property is approximately 740 km north of Saskatoon, west of Wollaston Lake and measures approximately 7,983 hectares comprising of 24 contiguous areas to which UEX has 100% ownership, with the exception of Mineral Lease 5424 in which UEX owns a 77.575% interest. The Deposit is located within an area of the Athabasca Basin that has excellent infrastructure and is situated within 10 km of an existing all-weather road and power lines that service Cameco Corporation’s nearby Cigar Lake Mine and Rabbit Lake Operation, as well as Orano’s McClean Lake Operation.
The West Bear Cobalt-Nickel Deposit currently has a strike length of over 600 m and a dip length of over 100 m. Prior to expanding the size of the deposit in 2019, on July 10, 2018, the Company announced a maiden inferred resource estimate for the Deposit of 390,000 tonnes grading 0.37% cobalt and 0.22% nickel, which equates to 3,172,000 pounds of cobalt and 1,928,000 pounds of nickel which does not include any results from the 2019 drilling program. The West Bear Cobalt-Nickel Deposit mineral resources were determined using a cut-off grade of 0.023 percent cobalt equivalent (“CoEq”), using the equation CoEq = Co + (Ni x 0.2). Only mineralization located within a conceptual open pit was included in the final resource estimate.
About the Christie Lake Project
UEX currently holds a 60% interest in the Christie Lake Project and has entered into a joint venture with JCU. The Project is located approximately 9 km northeast and along strike of Cameco’s McArthur River Mine, the world’s largest uranium producer. The P2 Fault, the controlling structure for all of the McArthur River deposits, continues to the northeast beyond the mine. UEX believes that through a series of en-echelon steps the northeast strike extension of the P2 Fault not only crosses the Project but also controls the three known uranium deposits on Christie Lake, the rora, Paul Bay and Ken Pen Deposits.
The Christie Lake Project is currently estimated to contain 588,000 tonnes grading 1.57% U3O8, which equates to 20.35 million pounds of U3O8 using a cut-off grade of 0.2% U3O8 and are documented in the “Technical Report for the Christie Lake Uranium Project, Saskatchewan, Canada” which was filed on February 1, 2019 and has an effective date of December 13, 2018. The Technical Report is available on the Company’s website at www.uexcorp.com and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Qualified Persons and Data Acquisition
The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Roger Lemaitre, P.Eng., P.Geo., UEX’s President and CEO, Trevor Perkins, P.Geo., UEX’s Exploration Manager, and Chris Hamel, P.Geo., UEX’s Chief Geologist, who are each considered to be a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
About UEX
UEX (TSX:UEX, OTC:UEXCF.PK, UXO.F) is a Canadian uranium and cobalt exploration and development company involved in eighteen uranium projects, including seven that are 100% owned and operated by UEX, one joint venture with Orano Canada Inc. (“Orano”) and ALX Uranium Corp. (“ALX”) that is 50.1% owned by UEX and is under option to and operated by ALX, as well as eight joint ventures with Orano, one joint venture with Orano and JCU (Canada) Exploration Company Limited, which are operated by Orano, and one project (Christie Lake), that is 60% owned by UEX with JCU (Canada) Exploration Company Limited which is operated by UEX.
The Company is also involved in three cobalt-nickel exploration projects located in the Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan. The 100% owned West Bear Project was formerly part of UEX’s Hidden Bay Project and contains the West Bear Cobalt-Nickel Deposit and the West Bear Uranium Deposit. UEX also owns 100% of two early stage cobalt exploration projects, the Axis Lake and Key West Projects.
Our portfolio of projects is located in the eastern, western and northern perimeters of the Athabasca Basin, the world's richest uranium belt, which in 2017 accounted for approximately 22% of the global primary uranium production. UEX is currently advancing several uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin which include the Christie Lake deposits, the Kianna, Anne, Colette and 58B deposits at its currently 49.1%-owned Shea Creek Project (located 50 km north of Fission’s Triple R Deposit and Patterson Lake South Project, and NexGen’s Arrow Deposit) the Horseshoe and Raven deposits located on its 100%-owned Horseshoe-Raven Development Project and the West Bear Uranium Deposit located at its 100%-owned West Bear Project.
About JCU
JCU is a private company that is actively engaged in the exploration and development in Canada. JCU is owned by three Japanese companies. Amongst these, Overseas Uranium Resources Development Co., Ltd. (“OURD”) acts as the manager of JCU. JCU has partnerships with UEX, Orano, Cameco, Denison and others on uranium exploration and development projects in the Athabasca Basin of Northern Saskatchewan including Millennium and Wheeler River and the Kiggavik project in the Thelon Basin in Nunavut.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT
Roger Lemaitre
President & CEO
(306) 979-3849
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