Azincourt Energy drilling hits elevated uranium levels
Azincourt Energy Corp. [AAZ-TSXV; AZURF-OTC] on Tuesday June 8 said anomalous and elevated uranium levels have been encountered at the company’s East Preston uranium project in the western Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan.
The company said the elevated uranium levels were reported in three of five holes completed in a drill program that was cut short due to an earlier than expected spring break-up. As a result, the company said only 1,195 metres were completed in five diamond drill holes.
Drill hole EP21004, for example, which targeted two parallel conductors and a gravity low in the G Zone, intersected several zones of breccia and graphic faulting over a 50-metre interval. Elevated uranium was identified above a graphitic breccia.
“These results show that we are on the right track,” said Azincourt Exploration Manager Trevor Perkins. “The elevated base metals and uranium show that we have uranium-bearing fluids in the area,” he said. “These results will help us vector towards the sweet spot.”
On Tuesday, Azincourt Energy shares were unchanged at $0.07 on volume of 2.1 million. The 52-week range is $0.18 and $0.02
Azincourt controls a 70% interest in the 25,000-hectare Eastern portion of the Preston project as part of a joint venture agreement with Skyharbour Resources Ltd. [SYH-TSXV; SYHBF-OTCQB] and Dixie Gold Inc. [DG-TSXV].
East Preston is near the southern edge of the western Athabasca Basin, where targets are a near surface environment without Athabasca sandstone cover. Therefore, they are relatively shallow targets but can have great depth extent when discovered.
The Preston Project is one of the largest tenure land positions in the Paterson Lake region and is strategically located near NexGen Energy Ltd.‘s [NXE-TSX, NYSE] high-grade Arrow deposit, Fission Uranium Corp.‘s [FCU-TSX] Triple R deposit and the Spitfire high-grade discovery on the Hook Lake Project, which is owned jointly by Cameco Corp. [CCO-TSX; CCJ-NYSE], Orano Canada Inc. (formerly known as Areva Canada Inc.) and Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. [PTU-TSXV].
The Athabasca Basin is best known as the world’s leading source of high-grade uranium and contributes 20% of the world’s supply.
“We’re preparing for a substantial amount of drilling in the next eight months and look forward to ramping up our exploration efforts significantly in the months ahead,” said Azincourt President and CEO Alex Klenman.
The target area for the 2021 drill program was the conductive corridor from the A-Zone through to the G-Zone. Plans for this year include a diamond drilling program to complete approximately 1,000 metres of drilling that was not completed during the shortened winter program.
The East Preston Project has multiple long linear conductors with flexural changes in orientation and offset breaks in the vicinity of fault lineaments, classic targets for basement-hosted unconformity uranium deposits.