Standard Uranium Eyes Next Major Discovery in Uranium-Rich Athabasca Region

Standard Uranium Ltd. [STND-TSXV, STTDF-OTCQB, 9SU-FWB] is aiming to find the next high-grade uranium deposit in the Athabasca Basin region of northern Saskatchewan, a region that currently supplies roughly 20% of the world’s uranium.

It is a company that offers investors a window on early-stage exploration for uranium, a commodity that is back on investor radar screens, one that is expected to provide a clean energy solution to the world’s climate challenges.

Standard Uranium is led by CEO Jon Bey and features a highly experienced uranium exploration team that includes President and VP of Exploration, Sean Hillacre, who in a previous role was part of the technical team that progressed NexGen Energy Ltd.’s [NXE-TSX, NYSE, NXG-ASX] Arrow uranium deposit towards production. “We are trying to repeat what we did at NexGen,’’ Hillacre said.

It is worth noting that Arrow is located on the Rook 1 Project, currently the largest development stage uranium project in Canada, and is located roughly 30 kilometres east of Standard Uranium’s flagship Davidson River project, within the same geological domain.

The Rook 1 project is estimated to have a production capability of 30 million pounds of uranium annually.

Davidson covers the inferred extension of the structural trend that hosts Fission Uranium Corp.’s [FCU-TSX; FCUUF-OTCQX; 2FU-FSE] Patterson Lake South property, which hosts the high-grade Triple R uranium deposit.

It also lies 75 kilometres south of the past-producing Cluff Lake uranium mine and is in the vicinity of F3 Uranium Corp.’s [FUU-TSXV] JR Zone.

Surrounded by world-class uranium deposits and boasting the same geological characteristics as those mentioned above, Davidson provides a company-maker opportunity for discovery of another economic uranium deposit in the SW Athabasca Basin – a region that has been a hotbed of exploration over the last decade.

In the mineral exploration sector, junior explorers tend to focus on one or two key projects. But Standard Uranium has moved to maximize its chances of discovery by deploying a project generator business model.

The company holds more than 233,000 acres of prime exploration real estate across the prolific Athabasca Basin, including a portfolio of uranium projects currently available for option ranging from early-stage to drill-ready. These are projects that provide turn-key opportunities with permits in hand, First Nation agreements signed, vendors secured, and highly prospective uranium targets.

In a recent interview with Resource World, Bey explained that his company makes it easy for new partners to come into the Athabasca Basin. “They come to us. We have the project and the exploration team. They come in with a good team and some capital and we run the entire thing from start to finish,’’ he said.

“They pay a fee in cash and a fee in shares. They pay us to operate the project, and they commit to a minimum exploration expenditure each year to advance the projects. We are going to be operating full steam ahead for the entire year which is exciting for us and our shareholders.”

‘It provides the Company with important optionality as a means to bring non-dilutive capital into the company,’’ said Hillacre.

To assist in the exploration effort, the company has a team of five in-house geoscientists led by Hillacre.

In keeping with its project generator strategy, the company completed three joint-venture earn-in partnerships on its Sun Dog, Canary, and Atlantic projects in 2024, a move that generated $23.8 million in work commitments over the next three years.

Standard Uranium also sold 90% of the 312-hectare Brown Lake project to Mustang Energy Corp. [MEC-CSE, MECPF-OTC, 92T-FRA] for 60,000 common shares in Mustang, while retaining a 10% free carried interest in the project.

On November 12, 2024, Standard Uranium shares were trading at $0.085 in a 52-week range of 45 cents and $0.07.

Short term catalysts that could drive the shares are drill programs at the Sun Dog Project, and the eastern Athabasca projects under option, as well as Davidson River, Corvo, and Rocas.

The Sun Dog project is located in northwest Athabasca basin near Uranium City and is under option to Aero Energy Ltd. [AERO-TSXV]. In total 1,593 metres were completed across eight drill holes this year, targeting high-grade basement hosted mineralization at the Wishbone target area. Intervals of anomalous radioactivity (over 300 counts per second) were intersected in seven of eight drill holes. Geochemical assays are still pending.

Under the option agreement, Aero can earn up to 100% by spending $6.5 million on exploration.

Standard Uranium says the targets tested at Sun Dog during the summer 2024 program represent only a small fraction of the dozens on the ground and the company is working with its option partners to prioritized follow-ups for additional geophysics and drilling to further test promising areas.

Standard has acquired eight projects in the eastern Athabasca region.

They include Atlantic Project, which is optioned to ATCO Mining Inc. [ATCM-CSE]. Analytical results from the winter 2024 drill program confirmed highly anomalous uranium in drill three drill holes. ATCO can earn up to a 75% interest by spending $6.3 million on exploration.

Standard Uranium has said it believes Atlantic holds significant upside potential for discovery along the untested portions of the E-W conductor system.  Supplementary geophysical surveys over the central claim blocks are currently being planned and will provide further target areas for phase 2 and 3 drilling, along with the additional gravity low anomalies on the western block identified in 2022.

Initial exploration and geophysical programs on the early-stage Rocas and Corvo, also located in the eastern Athabasca, are planned for the fall of 2024, a move that creates more opportunities for additional option partnerships in 2025.

Meanwhile, the company has added nearly 45,000 acres of prospective land to its portfolio this year through staking, expanding the Ascent and Corvo projects significantly and adding four new projects to the exploration pipeline.

Standard has refined its exploration strategy for high-grade basement hosted uranium mineralization at Davidson River by completing 16,561 metres of drilling in 39 holes since 2020. That work targeted four main conductive corridors – the Warrior, Bronco, Thunderbird and Saint trends. All four geophysical corridors contain several target areas that are favourable for high-grade basement-hosted uranium mineralization.

The summer 2022 program revealed the best intersections of prospective alteration and structure to date along the Bronco and Thunderbird trends, including wide graphitic structural zones on Bronco and oxidized alteration on Thunderbird, in addition to elevated radioactivity and dravite alteration.

Planned 2025 drilling will follow up on the most prospective basement structures and alteration zones intersected to date and begin testing new target areas – akin to the neighbouring JR Zone discovery within recently staked claim blocks.

Standard Uranium is the first uranium company to leverage GoldSpot Discoveries Corp.’s [SPOT-TSXV, SPOFF-OTCQX] cutting-edge data driven machine learning processes, to help identify and prioritize drill targets.

The Company has its flagship property with the Davidson River Project, they have a proven project generator model with great partners on several of their projects already in place. If their work in 2024 is any indication, finding partners shouldn’t be an issue. Interested? I suggest touching base with Mr. Bey or Mr. Hillacre sooner, rather than later.