Pioneer Metals Corporation announces winter drilling confirms uranium potential at Riou Lake, geophysics identify land target
VANCOUVER, June 2 /CNW/ - Pioneer Metals Corporation
Trading Symbol:''PSM-T''
Pioneer Metals Corporation (''Pioneer'') is pleased to announce the
results of the 1999 winter geophysics and drilling program at its Riou Lake
Uranium Project, Athabasca Basin, northern Saskatchewan, Canada. Pioneer is
operator of the Project. Work was carried out on both the 100% Pioneer-owned
Riou Lake claims as well as those (''PM Claims'') optioned to Cameco
Corporation. The results of the program were presented to Cameco
representatives at Pioneer's offices late May. The program has added
significant value to the property because it established the presence of both
a structural and a hydrothermal uranium-mineralizing system. Thus, the
likelihood of a uranium deposit being discovered at Riou Lake has increased.
Cameco's exploration team indicated they were encouraged by the progress and
reaffirmed their financial commitment to the Project.
Under the direction of Pioneer's consulting geophysicists and geologists,
a twelve-week program of ground geophysics and drilling was carried out this
past winter, commencing January 11. Quantec Consulting Inc. collected one
hundred and fifty line-kilometres of geophysical data on three separate grids
during the first six weeks of the program, mainly on the PM Claims optioned to
Cameco. Eight diamond drill holes totaling 4,687 metres were completed by
Midwest Drilling Ltd. Seven of the eight holes successfully tested the
unconformity, which lies at depths between 500 and 700 metres. The four holes
drilled on the PM Claims (RLGD-1, 2, 7 & 8) tested targets identified by
geophysical surveys from both the 1999 and 1998 winter programs. The
remaining drill holes are located on the 100% Pioneer-owned Riou Lake claims
(RLGD-3, 4, 5 & 6) and were intended to provide geological information.
Drilling has confirmed that the essential elements of the
unconformity-type uranium deposit model are found at Riou Lake, specifically
that:
1. the basement lithology in the magnetic lows is pelitic;
2. graphitic conductors are present within these pelitic basins;
3. the Riou Lake corridor has undergone considerable post-Athabasca
tectonism;
4. hydrothermal alteration has affected the region;
5. conditions are favourable for the preservation of uranium.
1. Prior to Pioneer's drilling at Riou Lake this winter, no drill holes
had tested the basement rocks in the Riou Lake corridor. The Riou Lake
corridor is characterized by a line of dissected magnetic lows striking in a
west-northwesterly direction across the otherwise northeast-trending magnetic
anomaly pattern south of Lake Athabasca. Pioneer's geologists and
geophysicists had speculated that these were caused by a pelitic basement
underlying the Athabasca Group sandstones. A pelitic basement underlies all
of the major uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin. Pioneer's drilling
tested a number of these lows and intersected pelite in five of the seven
holes that tested basement rocks (RLGD-1, 3, 6, 7 and 8). After conducting a
petrographic study of Pioneer's drill holes, Saskatchewan Research Council
staff (''SRC''), who have studied most of the uranium deposits in the
Athabasca Basin, describe the Riou Lake basement as ''fertile for
unconformity-type uranium mineralization''.
2. The ground geophysics program discovered a significant
electromagnetic anomaly (the ''KC'' conductor) within a previously unsurveyed
magnetic low lying immediately to the south of the uraniferous boulder field
at the east end of Riou Lake (the ''W-Zone'', see News Release, Sept. 24,
1998). A new grid, the W-grid, was established to further define this
conductor. Interpretation of the EM results from the W-grid by Pioneer's
geophysicists, in collaboration with geophysicists from Cameco and Quantec,
pinpointed two targets which were subsequently drilled (RLGD-7 & 8). Drilling
of hole RLGD-8 proved that the KC conductor is caused by a zone of basement
graphite conductors hosted within a mylonitized zone in a pelite basin. The
presence of a graphitic basement conductor is thought to be an essential
element of the unconformity-type uranium deposit model in the Athabasca Basin.
The individual graphite bands grade up to 15% graphite and show evidence of
alteration. Pioneer is especially pleased that the conductor is wholly
located on land, making it accessible for year-round drilling.
3. The Riou Lake Property, particularly the eastern area, is highly
tectonized. Drilling at three drill holes intersected breccia zones in the
sandstone (RLGD-1 & 2) and at the unconformity (RLGD-7). The breccia zone at
RLGD-7 is associated with a reverse fault structure that offsets the basement
by 60 metres, delineating a sandstone wedge similar to those associated with
some uranium deposits found in the Wollaston Belt. If all three breccia zones
were part of the same structure, it would indicate the presence of a major
west-northwest fault system. RLGD-6 proved the presence of a graben in the
central Riou Lake area. The graben is a fault-bounded block that has been
displaced downward with respect to the neighbouring rocks in excess of 100
metres. The direction of the bounding faults are inferred to trend
north-northeast. The presence of two major fault trends at roughly right
angles will result in many highly brecciated, ''open'' cross-fault structures
on the property. Further study of the area this summer will map and provide
targets for drill testing of the fault structures in and around Riou Lake.
Brecciated fault zones provide the plumbing system required for the
development of stable hydrothermal focussed flow that carries uranium and
associated metals -- the ''hydrothermal system''.
4. Geoscientists from SRC are of the opinion that the strong bleaching
and clay alteration in the sandstone observed in RLGD-1, 7 and 8 and the Numac
hole (see News Release, September 24, 1998) indicates the presence of a
hydrothermal system. These holes are contained within a 6 sq. km area inside
the PM claims. Discrete alteration was also recognized in other holes within
the sandstone and into the basement, demonstrating the regional extent of the
phenomenon. Geochemical analysis of the core shows that there is a strong
uranium anomaly at the unconformity under much of the Riou Lake Property.
Anomalous uranium was encountered in the seven drill holes that reached the
unconformity with values as high as 330 ppm (background equal to 5 ppm).
Anomalous uranium (12 ppm over a background of 0.25 ppm) in RLGD-1 associated
with anomalous lead, cobalt, nickel, boron and arsenic was also detected in
sandstone fractures as high as 620 m above the unconformity. The vertical
extent of these metals is particularly significant in that it shows the
strength and magnitude of this hydrothermal plumbing system that has removed
these metals from their source and circulated them so close to surface.
5. The pervasive presence of pyrite and siderite in the sandstones
throughout the Property confirms that the sandstones in their more recent
history did not suffer oxidizing conditions. This would have helped to
preserve any uranium mineralization emplaced by the hydrothermal system.
In every sense, the winter's exploration effort met and exceeded
expectations in that it proved the presence of the essential elements of the
unconformity-type uranium deposit model on the Property. Presently, Pioneer's
consultants are assessing the last of the geochemical and X-ray analyses of
the core from the winter program. In order to provide specific areas of
interest for the summer field program, an airphoto study and analysis of a
reprocessed detailed aeromagnetic survey dating from 1979 are about to begin.
The summer program of reconnaissance and detailed geological mapping, till
boulder studies, lake sediment geochemical surveys, and a borehole EM
geophysical survey of RLGD-7 will begin in mid-July and continue for four to
five weeks.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF PIONEER METALS CORPORATION
Stephen H. Sorensen,
President & C.E.O.
%SEDAR: 00004265E
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For further information: Stephen H. Sorensen, President & C.E.O.
(604) 669-3383, fax (604) 669-1240 |
