Uranium explorer Basin Energy (ASX: BSN) has uncovered uranium mineralisation up to 0.27% in maiden drilling at its 60% owned Geikie Uranium Project in the Athabasca Basin in Canada.
The $12.18 million market capitalisation company says uranium mineralisation was encountered in 4 of the 8 holes drilled and that the presence of elevated lead isotope anomalies, as well as ‘extensive’ hydrothermal alteration observed in 5 holes, is indicative of a potential ‘major’ uranium mineralising system.
The top intersections from this bout of exploration include 0.5m @ 0.27% triuranium octoxide (U3O8) from 185m and 9m @ 263 parts per million (ppm) U3O8 from 84m. This second intersection comes from a wider 27m ‘uranium-anomalous’ hit.
Speaking to Mining.com.au, Basin Energy Managing Director Pete Moorhouse says the company has truly ‘hit the nail on the head’ with these results.
“The Athabasca basin is genuinely the Saudi Arabia of uranium; it’s the only address to be to do this sort of exploration, really.
This is a maiden drill program on a part of the Athabasca basin which has not been touched from a uranium perspective. [It has been] really completely overlooked. This area is a bloody exciting place to be for a junior.
We’re looking in the top couple of hundred metres, which is a really big differentiator for us as a junior explorer. It’s very hard to explore at depth, so we’ve got these shallow targets with the right geology and the right structures for these big discoveries.
“This area is a bloody exciting place to be for a junior”
We’re also seeing uranium up to 0.27%, so over a quarter of a per cent uranium, which is a pretty good hit only over half a metre. But, still, that’s a good sign. We’ve also got 9m @ 263ppm which, again, is starting to demonstrate that this metal is busy.
So, we’ve got evidence that the fluids are floating around the metals in the system, the potential faults are there, and they’re big enough to host one of these big, big deposits. It’s got all the hallmarks of being what we call a major uranium system.“
Moorhouse also tells this news service the results show that the eastern side of the project represents an emerging area for ‘unconformity’ targets.
“A lot of the focus has been on what we call unconformity deposits in the Athabasca, which is a specific geological model looking at the contact between a sandstone and an older rock unit.
For us, the eastern side of where our Geekie Project is represents that emerging area.”
What’s more, Moorhouse says the company is all-in on exploration within the Athabasca.
“Our current strategy is very much exploration and exploration for one of these discoveries. Specifically, our focus is uranium exploration in the Athabasca Basin. And that’s the narrative at the moment. I’d love to have some of these pounds on the books.
Following these discoveries and results, the MD explains the company is awaiting results from an airborne gravity survey, which was designed to map alteration systems, to undertake additional exploration programs.
“We know what orientation we’re chasing because we can see that in the drill core. And we’re looking for these big gravity lows or intense gravity lows where this alteration has been most intense. That will form the basis for our follow-up program.”
Phase two drilling is scheduled to begin in early 2024.
Basin Energy is an ASX-listed explorer working to support a global transition to carbon neutrality by targeting unconformity-type uranium deposits in the ‘highest-grade’ uranium district globally.
The company’s Geikie projects are positioned in the southeast corner and margins of the ‘world-renowned’ Athabasca Basin in Canada.
Basin Energy had $5.2 million cash at hand as of 30 June 2023, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Adam Drought at Mining.com.au
Images: Basin Energy
