Purepoint Uranium (PTU-V), Rio Tinto Exploration Canada to drill 2,500 m at Red Willow
Oct 29, 2013 - News Release
At last week's technical committee meeting, Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc. presented plans for a 2,500-metre drill program this winter at Purepoint Uranium Group Inc.'s Red Willow project in Saskatchewan's Athabasca basin. Purepoint optioned the property to Rio Tinto, allowing it to earn a controlling interest in the Red Willow project by spending up to $22.5-million in exploration and development expenses.
"We are very pleased to see Rio Tinto's continued commitment to the advancement of the Red Willow project," said Chris Frostad, Purepoint's president and chief executive officer. "This, in addition to the planned program at Hook Lake, will result in 7,500 metres of drilling this winter with the full financial backing and technical support of three of the largest uranium producers in the world."
Highlights
- During 2013, Rio Tinto completed 3-D geophysical inversions of primary targets within the Red Willow project area, as well as an interpretation of regional and detailed geochemical surveys that were carried out in 2012.
- A new 28-person camp facility was established on the project site by Rio Tinto this summer.
- Approximately 2,500 metres of diamond drilling is planned for this winter on targets identified from historic drill logs, and more recent geophysics and geochemistry.
- Rio Tinto, as manager and operator, must incur exploration expenditures of $5-million before Dec. 31, 2015, in order to earn an initial 51-per-cent interest in the project. To date, Rio has incurred expenses of approximately $2.25-million.
Exploration target areas
One of the drill targets this winter will be the electromagnetic (EM) conductors at Geneva that are within a distinct fold structure as highlighted by the aeromagnetic results. Eldorado Resources, a predecessor to Cameco, intersected a graphitic fault zone in hole RAD-27 that returned 0.22 per cent triuranium octoxide over one metre during a 1984 drill program. Cameco ranked the basement alteration of 366 historic drill holes on its Rabbit Lake project during 1995 using pathfinding elements (lead, nickel, copper, uranium, total clay and chlorite) and a hole from the Geneva area, RAD-17, returned the highest alteration score.
Like Geneva, the Osprey area is a fold structure locally associated with strong hydrothermal alteration and anomalous uranium mineralization. A primary drill target this winter will be an interpreted east-west graphitic structure coincident with a multipoint, multielement soil anomaly east of the main Osprey conductor where an intercept of 0.20 per cent equivalent triuranium octoxide over 5.8 metres was previously identified.
Drill targets within the Lasby and Mustang areas are based on historic diamond drill results where significant intercepts of clay alteration were noted, interpreted as strong hydrothermal alteration; however, the shallow depths of the holes did not fully test these prospective areas.
Red Willow
The Red Willow property covers 25,612 hectares on the eastern edge of the Athabasca basin. The Athabasca sandstone is shallow and the depth to unconformity varies from zero to 80 metres. The basement rocks are composed of intensely deformed and metamorphosed sedimentary, volcanic and plutonic rocks trending northeast to southwest. Five major uranium deposits are located along a northeast-southwest mine trend that extends through the Red Willow project.
The Red Willow property adjoins Areva Resource Canada Inc.'s claim group that contains the JEB, Sue, McClean and Caribou deposits to the west, and to the south adjoins UEX's Hidden Bay property that surrounds Cameco's Rabbit Lake, Collins Bay and Eagle Point deposits.
Scott Frostad, BSc, MASc, PGeo, Purepoint's vice-president, exploration, is the qualified person responsible for technical content of this release.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Oct 8, 2013 - News Release
Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. has provided details about its winter exploration program at the Hook Lake project in Saskatchewan's Athabasca basin. The project is a joint venture with AREVA Resources Canada Inc. and Cameco Corp. and is located immediately north of Patterson Lake where high-grade uranium mineralization has been discovered by the Fission Uranium Corp. and Alpha Minerals Inc. joint venture.
The 2014 diamond drill program will focus on the highly prospective Patterson Lake corridor, the same (electromagnetic) conductive trend that hosts the Patterson Lake South uranium discovery.
"We are more than tripling the size of our drill program this year," said Chris Frostad, Purepoint's president and chief executive officer. "Based on the positive indicators for uranium deposition at the Hook Lake project, well-established electromagnetic conductors and the local discovery of high-grade uranium mineralization, the joint venture partners are fully supportive of these heightened efforts."
Highlights:
- The Patterson corridor hosts over 35 kilometres of known airborne EM conductors on the Hook Lake property. Over 40 ground EM targets remain untested and ready for drilling.
- The program consists of approximately 5,000 metres of diamond drilling for a total budget of $2.5-million.
- During last week's meeting, the joint venture partners agreed to proceed with the planning and preparation of the 2014 program and budget at these levels.
- On Nov. 27, 2012, the company filed a National Instruments 43-101-compliant technical report on its Hook Lake uranium project. The report can be found on SEDAR or on Purepoint's website.
Hook Lake project
The Hook Lake project consists of nine claims totalling 28,683 hectares and is situated in the southwestern Athabasca basin only five kilometres northeast of the new high-grade uranium discovery by the Fission/Alpha joint venture. The depth to the Athabasca unconformity is very shallow, ranging from zero to 350 metres. Three prospective structural corridors have been defined on the property, each corridor comprising multiple EM conductors that have been confirmed to be the results of graphitic metasediments that intersect the Athabasca unconformity.
The Patterson Lake corridor is the same conductive trend along which the Fission/Alpha joint venture has intersected high-grade uranium mineralization, most notably the intercept of 9.08 per cent U3O8 over 54.5 metres in drill hole PLS13-075 (Fission Uranium press release of Sept. 4, 2013) including 21.76 per cent U3O8 over 21.5 metres. Within the Hook Lake project, the Patterson Lake corridor displays geophysical evidence of a complex structural history and, where drill tested, has shown favourable signs of alteration and structural disruption. In 2011, three new claims totalling 2,632 hectares were added to the Hook Lake project due north of where high-grade uranium boulders were discovered by Fission/Alpha on their PLS property.
Scott Frostad, BSc, MASc, PGeo, Purepoint's vice-president, exploration, is the qualified person responsible for technical content of this release.
|
