Solex Resources Has A Good Looking Uranium Property In Peru, If Only The Labs Would Hurry Up And Deliver The Assay Results
By Rob Davies
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With a deep and extensive background in the mining sector Jonathan Challis, president and chief executive of Solex Resources, isn’t afraid to admit that running a junior resource business is a difficult job. He cut his teeth at Goldfields, but then moved on to Shore Gold, by way of a few jobs at merchant banks along the way. But not for him the multiple pay-packets of the serial non-executive. He’s focussing all his attention on Solex Resources and has stood down from non-executive positions on other junior resource companies. Moreover, life is even more difficult down at the micro-cap end of the market where Solex is nestling with a market capitalisation of just C$20m.
Nevertheless, Jonathan is very upbeat about the uranium exploration acreage the company has in southern Peru. Its largest property is the Macusani East, in which it holds a 50 per cent stake and is jointly exploring with Frontier Pacific, the operator. This property, like the wholly owned Macusani West and South, are ignimbrite and ryholite flows where the uranium occurs in veins as well as in disseminated form. Jonathan says many of the targets outcrop at surface and are seven to fourteen metres thick.
This year’s exploration programme is focussed on a 20,000 metre drill campaign that aims to generate a 43-101 compliant resource at the end of it. The company has already identified several areas where uranium grades are at or above grades that would normally be deemed economic. A large amount of drilling has already been done but, as is increasingly common these days, results have been delayed by congestion in the labs. So the full results from the 24,000 metres drilled last year are still not out, although they should be announced in the next month or so. But a good portion have been released, and they present encouraging enough reading. Two drill holes delivered 2 metre intersections at over 0.1% U308, while two more slightly longer intersections delivered grades of around 0.05% U308. When the rest of the drill results come out, that news, combined with the news flow from other operators in the region should, Jonathan thinks, combine to form a steady stream of positive reports from the region. Exploration in the area is also aided by the recently completed trans-oceanic highway that gives sealed road access to this high country. Most of the area is over 4,000 metres above sea level.
The exploration concentrates around a massive extinct volcanic caldera that is 60 miles wide east to west and 40 miles long north to south, and it is this terrane that hosts the uranium mineralisation as fracture coatings and disseminations through the acidic explosive lava flows. It was identified as being prospective for uranium back in the 1970s but low prices and unfavourable politics kept explorers away. Now, though, a number of companies are at work in the region. Exploration work on the 100 per cent owned Macusani South properties has revealed that the uranium minerals autunite and torbernite can be seen with the naked eye, while scintillometer readings have been as high as 30,000 counts per second. Eleven drill targets have been selected on this property and drilling has only just started.
The nub of the investment proposition is that the Macusani area is a totally new uranium province with a unique geology. Solex has a commanding land position of over 90,000 hectares, putting it in the lead position for any consolidation that may happen if it, or any of its rivals, make significant discoveries. Solex doesn’t have any plans to move to production long term, and if its properties do end up making the grade, expect joint venture development partners to make much of the running. But as a cheap way of playing Peru and uranium, if such a combination is your bag, there appear to be few better opportunities. |
