Azincourt Energy to conduct geophysics at East Preston Uranium Project, Saskatchewan
Azincourt Energy Corp. [TSXV: AAZ; OTCQB: AZURF] provided an update on proposed exploration activities at the East Preston Uranium Project in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, Canada.
The East Preston uranium project is being advanced by Azincourt in addition to its recently acquired Snegamook Uranium Deposit which the company intends to advance to resource status in its 2025 work program.
The East Preston project is located near the southern edge of the western Athabasca Basin, along a parallel conductive trend between the PLS-Arrow trend and Cameco’s Centennial deposit (Virgin River-Dufferin Lake trend).
Three prospective conductive, low magnetic signature corridors have been discovered at East Preston. The targets are basement-hosted unconformity related uranium deposits similar to NexGen’s Arrow deposit and Cameco’s Eagle Point mine.
Azincourt intends to conduct follow-up exploration programs to continue testing the clay alteration zones with elevated uranium that were identified in the winters of 2023 and 2024, with a focus on the K and H Zones (areas of dravite and kaolinite clay alteration zones).
The company is planning a geophysical program for the fall of 2025 on portions of the East Preston project. The feasibility of a radon flux survey over portions of the K- and H-Zones to assist in refining drill targets within previously identified alteration zones is being explored. This type of survey has been useful in highlighting radon anomalies which have either confirmed or led to the discovery of several uranium showings and deposits, including Azincourt’s recently acquired Snegamook Deposit in the Central Mineral Belt in Labrador.
The company is also planning for a potential follow-up drill program for the winter of 2026, consisting of up to 1,500 metres of drilling in five diamond drill holes. The focus of this program would be to continue testing the clay alteration zone with elevated uranium that was identified in the winters of 2023 and 2024 with a focus on the K and H Zones. Targets will be refined with results from the Radon flux survey carried out in the fall.
The program is anticipated to utilize one helicopter-supported drill rig based from a local contractor camp. The use of a helicopter for support results in reduced disturbance due to not needing to open an access road to site. Drill and crew mobilization to site would commence as early as mid to late February when daylight hours are long enough to facilitate reasonable working conditions.
The planned budget for these programs is C$1.7-2mm. More details will be released as plans are refined and the company commences preparations.
“We would like to continue our work on East Preston and to take a closer look at the clay alteration in the K- and H- Zones,” commented VP Exploration Trevor Perkins. “This alteration zone indicates that we are on to something. A significant number of deposits in the Athabasca Basin have been found by identifying and chasing these types of alteration patterns. In the short term, we will continue to adopt techniques to assist in narrowing our focus and see where this trend takes us,” he continued.
The primary target area on the East Preston Project is the conductive corridors from the A-Zone through to the G-Zone (A-G Trend) and the K-Zone through to the H and Q-Zones (K-H-Q Trend). The selection of these trends is based on a compilation of results from the 2018 through 2020 ground-based EM and gravity surveys, property wide VTEM and magnetic surveys, and the 2019 through 2022 drill programs, the 2020 HLEM survey indicates multiple prospective conductors and structural complexity along these corridors.
Drilling has confirmed that identified geophysical conductors comprise structurally disrupted zones that are host to accumulations of graphite, sulphides, and carbonates. Hydrothermal alteration, anomalous radioactivity, and elevated uranium have been demonstrated to exist within these structurally disrupted conductor zones.
Azincourt controls a majority 86.5% interest in the 21,000-hectare East Preston Project. Three prospective conductive, low magnetic signature corridors have been discovered on the property. The three distinct corridors have a total strike length of over 25 km, each with multiple EM conductor trends identified. Ground prospecting and sampling work completed to date has identified outcrop, soil, biogeochemical and radon anomalies, which are key pathfinder elements for unconformity uranium deposit discovery.
The East Preston Project has multiple long linear conductors with flexural changes in orientation and offset breaks in the vicinity of interpreted fault lineaments – classic targets for basement-hosted unconformity uranium deposits. These are not just simple basement conductors; they are clearly upgraded/enhanced prospectively targets because of the structural complexity.
The targets are basement-hosted unconformity related uranium deposits similar to NexGen’s Arrow deposit and Cameco’s Eagle Point mine. East Preston is near the southern edge of the western Athabasca Basin, where targets are in a near surface environment without Athabasca sandstone cover – therefore they are relatively shallow targets but can have great depth extent when discovered. The project ground is located along a parallel conductive trend between the PLS-Arrow trend and Cameco’s Centennial deposit (Virgin River-Dufferin Lake trend).
Permits are in hand to conduct exploration activities at the East Preston property through the summer of 2026. The involvement of the local communities is essential for continued advancement of the East Preston Project.
Azincourt Energy is active at its joint venture East Preston uranium project in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, Canada, and the Snegamook advanced stage uranium project in the Central Mining Belt, Labrador.