CanAlaska Uranium drilling West McArthur prospect, Saskatchewan

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Canalaska Uranium Ltd. [CVV-TSXV; CVVUF-OTCQB; DH7N-FSE] has mobilized its drill crews and equipment as part of the approved $5-million 2022 program on the West McArthur uranium project in the eastern Athabasca basin of northern Saskatchewan. The project is operated by CanAlaska which holds a 76.51% ownership in the project and will fully finance the exploration in 2022 to increase its interest in the joint venture with Cameco Corp. [CCO-TSX; CCJ-NYSE].

The West McArthur project 42 zone mineralization is located 12 km west of Cameco and Orano’s McArthur River uranium mine, within the grid 5 survey area. Drilling to date has discovered a large sandstone alteration halo above high-grade uranium mineralization located at the unconformity. The 42 zone controlling structure is part of the C10 fault corridor. The C10 fault corridor hosts the nearby Fox Lake uranium deposit to the northeast (68 million pounds U3O8 at 7.99%), discovered by Cameco and Orano. During the 2021 drilling program, the company successfully extended the 42 zone mineralization, which now has a length of 120 metres and is open in at least three directions.

The primary goal of the 2022 drill program is continued expansion of the 42 zone, both to the northeast and southwest of the defined footprint. During the 2021 drilling program, the company identified a new high-grade intersection of 1.62% e U3O8 over 2.6 metres from 796.1 metres within a 10-metre-wide interval averaging 0.76% e U3O8.

Unfortunately, within the highest-grade section of the mineralized zone in WMA063-1, strong clay alteration and faulting resulted in very poor core recovery and only 5% of the core was recovered over a five-metre subinterval from 767.4 to 772.4 metres. It is important to note that a 10-cm interval of core taken from within the poor recovery zone returned an assay value of 3.01% U3O8. In addition, a large uranium and associated pathfinder metal elements halo in the sandstone, typical of the 42 zone area was reported approximately 19 metres west of WMA063-1, in WMA065-1.

A second objective for the 2022 drill program is focused exploration of the 1.8-km 42 zone extension target area to test the strong alteration, structure and uranium geochemistry identified in the 2021 drilling program. During the 2021 program, the company identified anomalous uranium and copper values associated with a large alteration halo and fault zone in the basal sandstone of WMA062 and WMA062-1. The main fault zone, which is 51 metres wide at the unconformity in WMA062-1, is characterized by strongly disrupted sandstone with reactivated sandy-clay gouge, structurally controlled quartz dissolution, grey sooty pyrite alteration, and pervasive strong bedding- and fracture-controlled quartz dissolution causing very poor recovery (0 to 30%). The basal sandstone associated with the fault zone contains anomalous uranium (greater than 0.5 ppm uranium partial) up to 8.6 ppm, copper (greater than 1.0 ppm copper partial) up to 24.4 ppm, and boron (greater than 100 ppm boron total) up to 2,350 ppm that reach approximately 180 metres vertically above the unconformity.

The third objective of this drill program is the testing of multiple new targets generated during the time domain electromagnetic (TDEM) survey completed in the winter of 2022.

Cory Belyk, CEO, commented: “In addition to the continued discovery of high-grade uranium mineralization at the unconformity at 42 zone and the recognition of several new priority target areas immediately to the southwest of 42 zone in 2021, the 2022 winter work has now defined several additional and exciting new target areas along trend that were previously unknown. This new information has significantly increased the West McArthur target inventory providing additional discovery opportunity for our shareholders. With uranium market fundamentals continuing to strengthen on a global scale and the urgent need for increased clean energy production, continued advancement of the 42 zone and these new targets is warranted for CanAlaska shareholders. The 2022 summer program is shaping up to be very significant for the company.”


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