CanAlaska Uranium drills 1.03% U3O8 over 6.3 metres at West McArthur, Saskatchewan
Canalaska Uranium Ltd. [TSXV-CVV; OTCQX-CVVUF; FSE-DH7] has mobilized the drill crews and equipment as part of the $7.5-million 2024 program on the West McArthur joint venture project in the eastern Athabasca basin, northern Saskatchewan.
The 2024 West McArthur drill program will focus on continued expansion of the Pike zone discovery, and along-strike unconformity testing to the northeast and southwest. The company is also pleased to report that it has received assay results from the 2023 fall drill program at the West McArthur project.
Geochemical assay results are highlighted by drill hole WMA082-2 in the Pike zone, which returned a high-grade intersection grading 1.03% U3O8 (triuranium octoxide) over 6.3 metres, including a subinterval of 2.82% U3O8 over 1.9 metres. The West McArthur project, a joint venture with Cameco Corp. [TSX-CCO; NYSE-CCJ], is operated by CanAlaska. CanAlaska currently holds an 83.29% ownership in the project.
20234 West McArthur exploration program: For the winter exploration season, the company will have two drills active on the West McArthur project. Results from the recently completed drill programs indicate that priority targets exist both at the Pike zone, and as unconformity and basement extensions along the C10 South target corridor. At the Pike zone, the drill program will focus on continued expansion of basement mineralization along the controlling fault structure, to the southwest where mineralization remains open and to the northeast below the unconformity mineralization intersected in 2023.
In addition, the company plans to continue testing the unconformity target areas both in the immediate Pike Zone area and along strike to the northeast and southwest as potential unconformity extensions.
The company has completed additional processing of the recent 3D DCIP Resistivity survey in conjunction with the 2022 SWML TDEM data. Results from the joint processing have highlighted at least two large priority target areas, both southwest and northeast, along the C10S corridor. In these target areas, the conductivity iso-surface has breached the unconformity contact into the lower part of the sandstone column. This conductivity breach into the lower sandstone may represent structural disruption and clay alteration related to the movement of uranium mineralizing fluids.
The C10 corridor is host to CanAlaska’s nearby 42 Zone discovery, as well as Cameco and Orano’s high-grade Fox Lake uranium deposit (68.1 million pounds uranium at 7.99% U3O8 average grade. The 15-km-long C10S corridor remains completely untested to the southwest of Pike Zone and only sparsely tested to the northeast between the Pike Zone and 42 Zone mineralization. Based on the positive 2023 drill program results and the uranium fertility of the C10-C10S corridor, the company believes significant potential for unconformity-related mineralization exists at Pike Zone and nearby along the C10 South corridor.
The company expects to complete the winter portion of the 2024 exploration program in April. CanAlaska is sole-funding the 2024 West McArthur program, further increasing its majority ownership in the Project.
Canalaska CEO, Cory Belyk, commented, “I am very pleased with the results of the 2023 drilling program. Last year, the Pike Zone was expanded and extended in the basement and at the unconformity with connected mineralization now extending at least 160 metres along the unconformity and at least 160 metres down-plunge into the basement rocks. This discovery is proving to be part of a very large mineralizing event, the extents of which are not yet known.
“Drilling in 2024 will work toward continued expansion of Pike Zone. In addition, final processing of our geophysics data has located two untested, prominent, and large target features, like ‘pearls on a string’, along the unconformity near Pike Zone. These priority targets will also be drill-tested in 2024. With the uranium price now above $100/lb, results from West McArthur in 2024 could be a game-changer for our shareholders.”
In November of 2023, the company announced continued expansion of the Pike Zone, where high-grade, basement-hosted uranium mineralization was extended in the upper basement and has now been confirmed over 160 metres into the basement along the controlling fault structures. Geochemical assay results received confirm the presence of uranium mineralization. These results are highlighted by WMA082-2 which returned a high-grade intersection grading 1.03% U3O8 over 6.3 metres, including a sub-interval of 2.825 U3O8 over 1.9 metres immediately below the unconformity.
All reported depths and intervals are drill hole depths and intervals, unless otherwise noted, and do not represent true thicknesses, which have yet to be determined.
CanAlaska Uranium holds interests in approximately 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres), in the Athabasca Basin.