Standard Uranium drills 0.5 m of 95.8 U ppm at Canary
2024-09-19 18:30 ET - News Release
Mr. Jon Bey reports
STANDARD URANIUM RECEIVES RESULTS FROM SPRING 2024 DRILL PROGRAM AT THE CANARY PROJECT; HIGHLIGHTING ELEVATED URANIUM AND PATHFINDERS
Standard Uranium Ltd. has released a summary of analytical results from the inaugural spring 2024 drill program at its 7,302-hectare Canary project highlighting localized anomalous uranium and pathfinder elements typical of basement-hosted uranium deposits. Canary is situated in the prolific eastern Athabasca basin, Northern Saskatchewan.
The project is currently under a three-year earn-in option agreement with Mamba Exploration Ltd. Pursuant to the option agreement, Mamba has been granted an option to earn a 75-per-cent interest in the project by funding $6-million in exploration expenditures over three years, with the inaugural drill program satisfying the year one exploration spend.
Highlights:
- Uranium mineralization confirmed: Analytical results from the spring 2024 drill program at the project confirmed moderately anomalous uranium in drill holes CAN-24-001 and CAN-24-003 with uranium: thorium (U:Th) ratios greater than or equal to 3:1, indicating hydrothermal uranium input.
- Basement-hosted uranium: Multiple zones of elevated uranium linked to structural zones and/or proximal to lithological contacts, indicating a uranium-fertile system.
- Elevated uranium pathfinders: Several key uranium pathfinder elements are present in anomalous quantities in multiple drill holes within the crystalline basement, providing vectoring information for future programs; anomalous boron is particularly common. Spectroscopy confirms presence of fracture-hosted dravitic-clay (13.4 per cent) associated with semi-pelitic gneiss in drill hole CAN-24-001.
- Follow-up targets and next steps: Canary holds significant upside for discovery along three different and significantly underexplored conductor systems. Supplementary geophysical surveys over all three corridors will provide further target areas for phase II and III drilling.
"Intersecting anomalous uranium and pathfinder elements associated with zones of hydrothermal alteration in a completely untested area on the first of three conductive corridors on the Canary project is very encouraging," said Sean Hillacre, Standard Uranium's president and vice-president of exploration. "The technical team and I are excited to continue our exploration efforts on the project with our partners at Mamba and look forward to outlining and testing additional target areas in phase II and III drilling."
The project is situated in the Mudjatik geological domain where several recent discoveries have been made, including IsoEnergy's Hurricane deposit located 11 kilometres directly to the south, and is significantly underexplored relative to adjacent magnetic low/EM conductor corridors. Follow-up targets are being planned as geological data from the spring 2024 program is processed and interpreted.
Spring 2024 drill program analytical highlights
The spring 2024 drill program comprised 1,863 metres of diamond drilling across four drill holes (Table 1). The drill program began on May 3 and was completed ahead of schedule on May 31, 2024.
Inaugural drilling intersected multiple key characteristics of a uranium-bearing mineralized system along the previously untested northern conductive trend on the project, including favourable hydrothermal alteration, highly deformed metasedimentary and metasomatized basement rock packages, and a potential quartzite ridge in the corridor footwall. Analytical data confirmed the intersection of elevated uranium within the basement rock in all four holes drilled during the spring drill program as well as local fracture-controlled dravitic clays. Uranium analytical highlights are summarized in Table 2 and anomalous uranium pathfinder elements highlights are summarized in Table 3.
The drill program was designed to test the newly outlined resistivity-low anomalies along the northern conductor trend, defined by the 2022 ground DCIP survey. The company is currently evaluating supplementary geophysical surveys across all three corridors on the project to further refine drill targets for follow-up drilling.
Additionally, legacy GeoTEM data defining the southeastern EM corridor on the project is directly comparable with the response and scale of the GeoTEM conductor which hosts the Roughrider/J-zone uranium deposits further to the south. Highly anomalous geochemistry and favourable alteration was returned from historical drill hole CRK-137 along the southeastern conductor, providing an exceptional follow-up target for phase II drilling.
Table 3. Canary spring 2024 drill hole pathfinder geochemistry summary. Results are reported in parts per million (ppm) partial digestion.
Samples collected for analysis were sent to SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories in Saskatoon, Sask., for preparation, processing and ICP-MS multielement analysis using total and partial digestion, gold by fire assay, and boron by fusion. Sandstone samples were tested using the ICP-MS1 uranium multielement exploration package plus boron. Basement samples were tested with ICP-MS2 uranium multielement exploration package plus boron. All sandstone samples and basement samples marked as radioactive upon arrival to the lab were also analyzed using the U3O8 assay (reported in wt per cent). Basement rock split interval samples range from 0.1 to 0.5 m and sandstone composite samples comprised multiple equal sized full core pucks spaced over the sample interval. SRC is an ISO/IEC 17025/2005 and Standards Council of Canada-certified analytical laboratory. Blanks, standard reference materials and repeats were inserted into the sample stream at regular intervals in accordance with Standard Uranium's quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) protocols. All samples passed internal QA/QC protocols and the results presented in this release are deemed complete, reliable and repeatable.
Samples containing clay alteration were sent to Rekasa Rocks Inc. in Saskatoon, Sask., to be analyzed by short wavelength infrared reflectance (SWIR) via a portable infrared mineral analyzer (PIMA) to verify clay species.
The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed, verified and approved by Sean Hillacre, PGeo, president and VP, exploration, of the company and a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101.
About Standard Uranium Ltd.
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 209,867 acres (84,930 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 has successfully formed three joint venture earn-in partnerships on its Sun Dog, Canary and Atlantic projects totalling over $23.8-million in work commitments over the next three years from 2024 to 2027.
Standard Uranium's Davidson River project in the southwest part of the Athabasca basin in Saskatchewan comprises 10 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 undertested 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.
Standard Uranium's eight eastern Athabasca projects comprise 30 mineral claims over 32,838 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 in Saskatchewan comprises nine mineral claims over 19,603 hectares. The Sun Dog project is highly prospective for basement-hosted and unconformity-hosted uranium deposits yet remains largely untested by sufficient drilling despite its location proximal to uranium discoveries in the area.