CanAlaska bullish on uranium, nickel projects
CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. [CVV-TSXV; CVVUF-OTCQB; DH7N-Frankfurt] said Wednesday November 13 that the company’s management is highly encouraged by drill discoveries at its West McArthur uranium joint venture in Saskatchewan and Manibridge nickel project in Manitoba.
CanAlaska is a uranium exploration company with a large land position in northern Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin. Its flagship property is the West McArthur Project, which lies on the eastern side of the Athabasca Basin, adjacent to Cameco Corp.‘s [CCO-TSX; CCJ-NYSE] McArthur River Mine.
In September, 2018, the company said it had staked 15 claims (about 3,800 hectares) in the Thompson, Manitoba nickel belt to cover historical and possible cobalt mineralization adjacent to the former Manibridge nickel mine which was in operation from 1971 to 1977. Original resources were 1.5 million tonnes at 2.25% nickel and 0.27% copper. Although cobalt was not reported, cobalt exists in other deposits in the Thompson Nickel Belt.
On Wednesday, CanAlaska said the latest West McArthur high-grade drill results include 6.9% U3O8 over 0.70 metres within a broad 650 metre by 400 metre geochemical halo – extending from bedrock to near-surface. It said the latest results provide strong support for continued drilling on the Grid 5 target zone in 2020.
The company said its summer program was focused on locating high-grade uranium hosted in faults along the C10 target horizon. This horizon hosts Cameco’s new Fox Lake deposit (68.1 million pounds at a grade of 7.99% U3O8), is located immediately east of the West McArthur property where CanAlaska is the 70% owner and operator of the joint venture. Partner Cameco owns the other 30%.
At the Manibridge nickel project, the company said drilling intersected high-grade mineralization – up to 12% nickel – at the North Zone. It also said the compilation of historical drill hole data from the newly acquired Manibridge Mine property has identified multiple new exploration targets. “Follow-up drilling is warranted for discovery of high-grade sulphide nickel deposits,” the company said.
CanAlaska shares were unchanged at 13.5 cents on Wednesday. The shares are trading in a 52-week range of 12 cents and 39.5 cents.
The Manibridge nickel deposit was discovered in 1963 by Falconbridge Ltd. following up on coincident magnetic and electromagnetic anomalies that were thought to be caused by an ultramafic body. The second hole of the program intersected the fringes of what would become the Manibridge Mine.
In March, 2019, CanAlaska announced that it has agreed to buy 100|% of the Manibridge Mine claims (covering 270 hectares) from Pure Nickel Inc. [NIC-TSXV]. The claims, termed Ore 5 and Ore 6, are subject to retained interests held by Glencore Canada Corp. as part of a 2007 purchase agreement between Glencore and Pure Nickel.
The retained interest involves a back-in right for Glencore to purchase back a 50% interest in the claims upon the discovery of a NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource of 15 million tonnes or greater, a 2% NSR, and off-take and marketing rights for all concentrate or product produced.
When the mine was in operation, concentrates were shipped to both Sudbury, Ontario and Thompson, Manitoba. Mining took place to a depth of 300 metres and the mine infrastructure has since been reclaimed.