Standard Uranium’s Expert Team Brings Decades of Discovery Experience to Saskatchewan’s Uranium-Rich Athabasca Basin

By Peter Kennedy

Standard Uranium Ltd. [STND-TSXV, STTDF-OTCQB, 9SU-FWB] is exploring for high-grade uranium in Saskatchewan with the aim of discovering the raw nuclear fuel in support of the global clean energy transition.

The company has interests in 84,930 hectares across the Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan, a region that ranks among the world’s leading uranium districts for exploration and mining.

The management team includes individuals with a proven track record of uranium discoveries specifically in the southwest corner of the Athabasca Basin. Sean Hillacre, the company’s President and vice-president, exploration, was part of the technical team that is progressing NexGen Energy Ltd.’s [NXE-TSX, NYSE]’s Arrow Deposit towards production.

Thanks to its project generator business model, the company has over $30 million committed to exploration programs over the next three years, including $9 million this year. That money is earmarked for projects that Standard owns outright or has active option-deals with partner companies.

“Heading into the 2024 exploration season, we now have 11 projects across the prolific Athabasca Basin, with a minimum of seven exploration programs planned,” said Standard CEO Jon Bey. That includes drill programs at the Atlantic, Sun Dog, Canary, Ascent and Davidson River projects.

Davidson River, covering 30,737 hectares in Southwest Athabasca, is Standard Uranium’s flagship project. It is located in an area that contains over 400 million pounds of high-grade uranium in known deposits,

The project covers the inferred extension of the structural trend that hosts Fission Uranium Corp.’s [FCU-TSX; FCUUF-OTCQX; 2FU-FSE] Patterson Lake South property, which hosts the high-grade Triple R uranium deposit, and NexGen Energy’s Rook 1 property, which hosts the Arrow Deposit.

Davidson River lies 75 kilometres south of the past producing Cluff Lake uranium mine and is also in the vicinity of F3 Uranium Corp.’s JR Zone.

Standard has refined its exploration strategy for high-grade basement hosted uranium mineralization at Davidson River by completing 16,561 metres of drilling in 39 holes since 2020. That work targeted four main conductive corridors – the Warrior, Bronco, Thunderbird and Saint trends. All four geophysical corridors contain several target areas that are favourable for high-grade basement-hosted uranium mineralization.

The summer 2022 program revealed the best intersections of prospective alteration and structure to date along the Bronco and Thunderbird trends, including wide graphitic structural zones on Bronco and oxidized alteration on Thunderbird, in addition to elevated radioactivity and dravite alteration.

Standard’s portfolio includes 19,604-hectare Sun Dog project on the northwestern edge of Athabasca near Uranium City. It contains the historic Gunnar uranium mine. Standard also has eight projects in the eastern Athabasca region, including Ascent, Canary, Atlantic, Corvo, Rocas, Cable Bay SW, Ox Lake, and Brown Lake.

In a February 12, 2024, news release, Standard said it has optioned its Atlantic project to Atco Mining Inc. [ATCM-CSE], which can earn a 75% interest in the 3,061-hectare property. To exercise the option, Atco needs to spend $6.3 million in exploration within three years. The Atlantic property is located due west of IsoEnergy Ltd.’s [ISO-TSXV, ISENF-OTCQX] Hurricane Zone.

News of the deal sent Standard Uranium shares up 13.3% or $0.01 to $0.085, leaving the company with a market cap of $19.6 million, based on roughly 230.65 million shares outstanding. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of .

Standard is the first uranium company to leverage GoldSpot Discoveries Corp.’s [SPOT-TSXV, SPOFF-OTCQX] cutting-edge, machine learning processes. It aims to aid in identifying and prioritizing drill targets. Standard has said 2024 will be the most ambitious year of exploration activities for the company so far.

At Davidson River, the company plans to follow up on prospective drilling results from 2022 and test new high priority targets akin to the neighbouring JR Zone discovery within the new southeast claim blocks at Davidson River.

Plans for 2024 include completing initial exploration and geophysical programs on the newly acquired Rocas and Corvo projects. Rocas (covering 3,152 hectares) is located 75 kilometres southwest of Cameco Corp.’s [CCO-TSX, CCJ-NYSE] Key Lake mine and mill. Corvo is beyond the eastern margin of the Athabasca Basin.

“We have our projects ready for drilling with our First Nations agreements in place, drill permits in hand, and our vendors contracted,’’ said Bey. “With the uranium spot price breaking the US$100 per pound barrier, the timing is fantastic to be embarking on multiple drill programs as new investors enter the uranium trade.’’

The company’s Sun Dog project was recently optioned into a three-year earn-in deal with Aero Energy Ltd. [AAU-TSXV, AAUGF-OTC Pink, 13LO-FSE] and incorporated into one of the largest landholdings in the Uranium City area. A drill program funded by Aero is planned for the first half of 2024 to satisfy the year-one spending requirements, which will be operated for a fee by the company.

The 2024 drill program is planned to follow up on the drilling conducted in 2022 and 2023, including intersections of dravite, illite/kaolinite clays, reactivated graphitic structure, hydrothermal brecciation and anomalous uranium.

In a recent interview with Resource World, Bey said his company makes it very easy for new partners to come into the Athabasca Basin. “They come to us. We have the project and the exploration team. They come in with a good team and some capital and we run the entire thing from start to finish,’’ he said.

“They pay a fee in cash and a fee in shares. They pay us to operate the project They commit to x amounts of dollars going into the ground. We are going to be going full steam ahead for the entire year which is exciting for us and our shareholders.”

During the past six years Bey said the company has been building its property portfolio, adding to its exploration team and building excellent relationships with our First Nations partners. “All our projects are fully permitted, and our First Nations agreements are in place,’’ he said.

“When we see opportunities that fit with our model we go after them.’’

THIS IS NOT A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY OR SELL ANY SECURITY.