Brazil Resources (BRI-V) Sept 19, '14 is pleased to announce that it has received a National Instrument 43-101 technical report on its Rea Uranium Project, Western Athabasca Basin. The Company acquired the Rea Uranium Project as part of its acquisition of Brazilian Gold Corporation late last year. It is controlled 75% by Brazil Resources Inc. and 25% by Areva Resources Canada Inc. The independent Technical Report summarizes historic exploration programs and highlights two prominent uranium targets for follow-up exploration.
The Rea Project is located 185 km north-northwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta in the western portion of the Athabasca Basin, an underexplored area that has seen renewed exploration activity as a result of recent near surface, high-grade discoveries in the nearby Patterson Lake area ( Rea Location Map). The Project consists of 12 contiguous exploration permits covering approximately 885 sq km. that surround Areva's Maybelle River Project, which hosts the relatively shallow (150 m below surface), high-grade Maybelle uranium deposit. The Athabasca Basin contains some of the largest and highest grade uranium deposits in the world and is currently estimated to contribute approximately 15.5% of the annual world-wide uranium production.
The recommended exploration program, as outlined in the Technical Report, is focused on two high priority targets (North Zone and West Zone; Rea North and West Zone Map). The North Zone target is located directly north of Areva's permits, where the Maybelle River Shear Zone ("MRSZ") can be traced for an additional 11 km to the north by geophysics and drilling on the Rea Project. Historic drilling (7 holes) in this area has tested the MRSZ over a strike distance of approximately 3 km, with several of these holes intersecting fault breccias in the overlying Athabasca Basin sedimentary rocks along with associated clay alteration, dravite, geochemically anomalous uranium and pathfinder elements (copper, lead, nickel, arsenic, boron and vanadium), features commonly associated with unconformity-type uranium deposits. The recommended drill holes (approx. 6 holes totaling 2,600 m) will test below these historic holes closer to the intersection of the MRSZ and the unconformity separating the Athabasca Basin sedimentary rocks and the underlying Archean basement. Most of the uranium mineralization discovered to date in the Athabasca Basin is located at or near the unconformity, where it is cut by a re-activated basement shear zone. The West Zone target is an airborne EM conductor located 1.5 km west of the Maybelle deposit and sub-parallel to the MRSZ. The recommended program will include a ground EM survey to better define the location of the airborne EM conductor and will be followed-up by diamond drilling.
Historic exploration programs were completed by a number of companies including Eldorado Nuclear Ltd. and Uranerz Exploration and Mining Limited ("Uranerz") from the mid-1970's to the late-1990's on ground now covered mostly by the Rea and Maybelle River Project. The programs included various geochemical surveys (lake, stream and soil), boulder prospecting, airborne and ground geophysics and diamond drilling that led to the discovery of the relatively shallow, high-grade Maybelle deposit by Uranerz in 1988. Since that time, most of the ground was allowed to lapse by prior owners, except for a small strip of permits covering the north-northwest to southeast trending MRSZ that hosts the Maybelle deposit.
In 2005, a large land package surrounding the Maybelle River Project was acquired by Brazilian Gold Corporation ("BGC") and subsequently optioned to UraMin Inc. in 2006; UraMin Inc. was purchased by Areva in 2007 and BGC was acquired by Brazil Resources in 2013. Historic exploration programs completed on the Rea Project during the period from 2005 to 2012 by prior operators included: airborne magnetics, EM and gravity surveys, ground EM and induced polarization (IP) surveys, and diamond drilling (8 holes totaling 1,908 m). The programs were successful in mapping the northern and southern continuation of the MRSZ (EM conductor high), which hosts the Maybelle deposit, onto the Rea Project as well as several parallel conductors to the west and east of the MRSZ, which are considered prospective for uranium mineralization. The Company and previous owners have not completed sufficient work to date to identify economic uranium mineralization at the Rea Project. Due to the historic nature of prior exploration programs and results and the lack of full quality assurance and control procedures, the authors of the technical report could not independently verify historic exploration results.
The authors of the Technical Report are Irvine R. Annesley, Ph.D., P.Geo. and Roy Eccles, M.Sc., P.Geol. The Technical Report will have an effective date of September 12, 2014. For further information regarding the Rea Project, readers should refer to the Technical Report, which the Company intends to file on the SEDAR website in due course. Mr. Eccles completed a site visit to the Rea Project on July 8, 2014. Dr. Annesley and Mr. Eccles are both Qualified Persons in their respective fields as defined by NI 43-101, are independent of Brazil Resources, and have reviewed the relevant technical information as disclosed in this news release.
Paulo Pereira, Brazil Resources' Vice President of Exploration has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release. Mr. Pereira holds a Bachelors degree in Geology from Universidade do Amazonas in Brazil, is a Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101 and is a member of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario. |
