Uranium Energy discovers high-grade uranium at Christie Lake, Saskatchewan
Uranium Energy Corp. [UEC-NYSE American; U6Z-FSE] reported a new discovery of high-grade uranium at its 82.77%-owned Christie Lake Project, located in the eastern Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan, Canada.
Christie Lake is a growth-oriented, high-grade resource-stage project, strategically situated 9 km along strike of Cameco’s McArthur River Mine and is of one of 29 projects in UEC’s recent $171 million acquisition of UEX Corporation.
To date, seven holes have been drilled into a new discovery, named the Sakura Zone.
Discovery hole, CB-173 encountered high-grade mineralization that averaged 7.8% eU3O8 over 9.1 metres between 422.2 metres and 431.3 metres, and included a subinterval of 26.1% eU3O8 over 2.3 metres from 425.1 metres to 427.4 metres.
Follow-up hole CB-176A, intersected the unconformity approximately 13 metres north-east of CB-173, and intersected 68.7% eU3O8 over 2.1 metres from 426.9 metres to 429.0 metres, the highest-grade mineralized intersection ever encountered on the Christie Lake property.
All seven holes contain uranium mineralization at or near the unconformity. These intersections represent some of the largest and highest-grade drill intersections of uranium reported globally in 2022.
Amir Adnani, CEO and President, stated: “We’re delighted to hit the ground running with our newly acquired portfolio in Canada. In the last ten months we’ve invested close to $420 million to create a unique two-pronged approach with a 100% unhedged market strategy: 1) near term U.S. In-Situ Recovery (ISR) production; and 2) Canadian high-grade conventional pipeline. Our Canadian high-grade conventional business is comprised of 29 projects, five of which are advanced resource-stage, with Christie Lake being one that we see strong potential for resource growth. The projects in Canada’s Athabasca Basin are among the highest grades globally for conventional mining and today’s headline 68% grade over 2 meters demonstrates this competitive advantage. While porosity, flow-rates and recoveries are essential in U.S. In-Situ Recovery production, grade is king in conventional mining. At UEC we have created a North American platform of best-in-class uranium resources in proven U.S. and Canadian mining jurisdictions.”
Mineralization at the Sakura Zone remains open for expansion in all directions and will be the focus of the next phase of drilling on the Christie Lake Project. UEC’s 2022 summer exploration program has now been completed and the company plans to commence the 2023 winter program in early January of the new year.
All of Canada’s current uranium production occurs from the mines located in the Athabasca Basin. According to the World Nuclear Association, the Athabasca Basin was responsible for producing 9.7% of the world’s uranium production in 2021.
True widths of the mineralization are estimated to be 90-95% of core length reported.
The uranium concentrations from holes presented above is the radiometric equivalent uranium grade, denoted as eU3O8, which is determined in-situ within the drill hole.
UEC holds an 82.775% combined direct and indirect interest in the Christie Lake Project which is a joint venture with JCU (Canada) Exploration Company, Limited, a company that is 50% owned by UEC’s wholly owned subsidiary UEX Corporation. UEC’s direct ownership in Christie Lake is 65.5492% and indirect ownership through its 50% ownership in JCU is 17.2254%
UEC’s technical team believes that, through a series of en-echelon steps, the northeast strike extension of the P2 Fault not only crosses the Christie Lake Project but also controls the three known uranium deposits on Christie Lake: the Orora, Paul Bay and Ken Pen deposits as well as the newly discovered Sakura Zone.
Uranium Energy has two production-ready ISR hub and spoke platforms in South Texas and Wyoming. These two production platforms are anchored by fully operational central processing plants and served by seven U.S. ISR uranium projects with all their major permits in place. Additionally, the Company has diversified uranium holdings including one of the largest physical uranium portfolios of U.S. warehoused U3O8, a major equity stake in Uranium Royalty Corp., the only royalty company in the sector, and a Western Hemisphere pipeline of resource stage uranium projects.