Basin Energy (ASX:BSN) has uncovered two distinct styles of mineralisation at its Virka Project in northern Sweden that show the project hosts more than just uranium.
Rock chip sampling in the final quarter of last year has returned grades of up to 9.8% zinc, 9.15% lead 425 parts per million (ppm) silver and 0.33% copper.
Meanwhile, uranium grading up to 1.43% has been identified in a separate outcrop – located over 8km away from historic drilling – along with total rare earth oxides (TREO) grading up to 0.13%.
Of the 23 samples collected, three returned strongly anomalous base metal values with silver above 100 parts per million. Five separate samples returned uranium above 0.1%.
Additionally, anomalous boulder samples identified mineralised veins returning grades of 0.27% uranium, 0.17% lead and 0.11% TREO.
Managing Director Pete Moorhouse says the two distinct styles of mineralisation recognised in the geochemistry within the project area is an important find from the initial program.
“From the previously reported historical drilling, we interpret that these structure systems have the potential for large-scale discovery, so the presence of high-grade mineralisation in surface rock chip geochemistry is highly encouraging,” he says.
“The focus for the team remains to complete detailed structural logging of the available historic core to understand the relationship between structure, mineralisation and geology.”
Basin Energy notes the mineralisation and anomalism observed in rock chip samples appears to dominantly be associated with a regional north-northeast trending structure set, similar to those observed at the Trollberget and Björkberget projects, located about 25km to the southeast.
Recent reconnaissance outcrop sampling at the Trollberget and Björkberget projects returned geochemical results of over 2.95% uranium.
The Virka Project is located within the Radnejaur-Moskosel metallogenic district, host to several base metal deposits and occurrences.
The largest base metal deposit in the region is Beowulf Mining’s (AIM:BEM) Lulepotten, which has a JORC-compliant inferred resource of 5.4 million tonnes @ 0.8% copper and 0.3 grams per tonne gold.
Virka also sits about 37km southeast of Boliden’s (STO:BOL) past producing Laisvall lead-zinc-silver mine – which was once Europe’s largest lead mine and where 64.3 million tonnes at 0.6% zinc, 4% lead and 9g/t silver was extracted.
Basin Energy says numerous structural zone targets at the project remain unexplored.
Structural logging and sampling of the historical drill core from Virka is ongoing and Basin Energy plans to undertake further fieldwork in the second quarter of 2025.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Basin Energy
