Atomic Minerals launches South Lisbon Valley East drill permitting, Utah
Atomic Minerals Corp. [TSXV: ATOM; OTCQB: ATMMF; FSE: DO8] reported the submission of drill permits at its 1,516.5 acre (614 hectare) South Lisbon Valley East property (SLVE) located approximately 35 km NE of Monticello, Utah. SLVE lies in the Colorado Plateau and covers the southern portion of a suspected belt of penecordant uranium mineralization hosted in the Moss Back member of the Triassic Chinle formation associated with the northeastern side of the downfaulted Lisbon Valley anticline.
Evaluation of oil and gas drill holes in the Lisbon Valley area located gamma ray anomalies within the base of the Chinle Formation in a number of the drill holes, potentially outlining a similar belt of uranium mineralization as found on the southwest side of the Lisbon Valley anticline.
“We are permitting an initial 18-20 drill holes in a series of fences across the property to test for uranium mineralization as well as establish the full width of the suspected arcuate belt along the length of the property,” commented Clive Massey, CEO. “We strongly believe significant uranium mineralization lies within the target belt, analogous to the previously producing uranium belt on the SW side of the Lisbon Valley Fault,” he concluded.
Atomic plans to drill a series of four to five fences across the full width of the property, largely utilizing the existing road and trail structure from the historic oil and gas drilling. The fences will be placed as proximal as possible to the historic oil and gas holes exhibiting significant gamma ray spikes at the base of the Chinle formation.
The roughly 130,000 square mile (336,700 km2) Colorado Plateau, hosts the largest uranium province in the USA and one of the largest in the world, having previously produced 597 million pounds to date. Most of the Colorado Plateau uranium deposits are hosted in the Triassic Chinle and Jurassic Morrison Formations that formed in mostly arid environments.
These deposits are exposed today along cliffs and drainages that transect the Plateau and have been mined for vanadium since 1909 and for uranium since 1946. The two main areas of uranium production were Morrison Formation Grants Mineral Belt in New Mexico and the Chinle Formation Lisbon Valley in Utah.
The Chinle Formation deposits are located in arcuate belts associated with a series of NW-SE trending anticlines developed as a result of salt movement in the underlying strata within the Paradox Basin. Paleo rivers flowed along each side of these anticlines with uranium mineralization found within these paleo-channels along the lengths of the anticlines. Lisbon Valley is the type location for Chinle deposits.
Lisbon Valley produced approximately 78 million pounds of U3O8 between 1952 and 1982 from an arcuate belt some 16 miles long by one mile wide with approximately 1/3 of the belt eroded away post mineral. Individual ore bodies ranged from a few hundred pounds to 20,000,000 pounds of U3O8, hosted in the basal Moss Back member of the Triassic Chinle formation along the southwest flank of the Lisbon Valley anticline. A northwest trending, post-mineral normal fault, the Lisbon Valley Fault abruptly cut-off and displaced the uranium mineralization associated with the northeast flank, speculatively dropping it +2,500 feet on the northeast side of the fault.
The Rio Algom mine produced 13 million pounds at an average grade of 0.25% U3O8 at a depth 2,550 feet on the downfaulted side of the fault, supporting the presence of an arcuate belt on the northeast side of the fault. Oil and gas drilling, largely between 2006 and 2014, on the northeast down-faulted side of the Lisbon Valley anticline located anomalous to extremely anomalous gamma ray readings in the suspected Moss Back Member in 28 of 51 holes drilled throughout a northwest trending belt 20 km in length by +750 metres in width, outlining the suspected eastern arcuate belt.
Within Atomic’s SLVE property nine widely spaced historic oil and gas wells appear to define the southern end of this 20km by +750 metre belt as ‘off-scale’ radioactivity was recorded within the favorable Chinle Formation host rock over widths of 1.8 to 4.5 metres (6 to 15 feet) from depths of 760 to 880 metres (2,495 to 2,890 feet).
Atomic considers these historical drill results relevant as the company will use this data as a guide to plan exploration programs. The company’s current and future exploration work includes verification of the historical data through drilling.
Atomic’s objective is to identify exploration opportunities in regions that have been previously overlooked but are geologically similar to those with previous uranium discoveries. These underexplored areas hold immense potential and are in stable geopolitical and economic environments.
Currently, the company’s property portfolio contains uranium projects with significant technical merit in three locations known for hosting Uranium production in the past. There are four on the Colorado Plateau. The plateau has previously produced 597 million pounds of U3O8. The other two recently acquired properties are located in the Athabasca region in Saskatchewan and the Mount Laurier property in Quebec.