Javelin Minerals has identified a large uranium target at its Stakeyard Well prospect that forms part of its larger Mt Ida operation in WA following a comprehensive data review of all its existing projects.
Management says the review highlighted a strong anomaly about 28km long by an average 3.3km wide where historical air-core (AC) drilling revealed positive uranium results.
Previous drilling recorded shallow positive results hosted within four of the project’s tenements with highlights showing a 1.5m intercept grading 297.64 part per million uranium from just 3.5m. Additional historical assays include a 1m intercept going 189.45ppm uranium, 1.5m at 171.55ppm uranium from 3.5m and another 1m section reading 118.71ppm uranium from 4m.
Importantly, Javelin says the uranium mineralisation remains open to the south of the Stakeyard Well target.
The data comes from initial exploration completed by Esso Exploration and also Energy Metals from 2010 to 2014. Neither company was able to test the nearby Lake Raeside at the time due to surface water.
Management says the highly prospective area remains poorly tested with the company currently working on an initial uranium exploration program which is expected to kick off shortly. It is planning to evaluate the immediate opportunity to generate targets for further exploration based on the uranium channel geophysics, in addition to the known identification of historical geochemical and drilling data.
Javelin Minerals executive chairman Brett Mitchell said: “We are confident in the potential for delineating uranium mineralisation at Mt Ida based on the available historical drilling results together with our understanding of the structural/lithological controls which host the uranium mineralisation within our surrounding neighbours. The recent work has given us the geophysical, lithological structural targets and trends known to previous explorers for immediate further evaluation.”
Stakeyard Well sits in the Eastern Goldfields region of WA and about 60km west of the mining town of Leonora. It is contained within the greater Mt Ida project which comprises 20 exploration licences and licence applications over 2210 square kilometres in an area considered prospective for lithium, and rare earths, in addition to precious and base metals.
Uranium is widely viewed as a critical component for the global decarbonisation effort, with production from world uranium mines in recent years suppling 90 per cent of the requirements of power utilities. The United States, China and France represent 58 per cent of the globe’s uranium demand.
According to the International Energy Agency, nuclear power generation will reach an all-time high in 2025, surpassing a previous record set in 2021. More than 20 countries signed a declaration at a United Nations Climate Change Conference last year to triple their nuclear-generating capacity by 2050.
Shares in Javelin jumped from 0.1c to touch 0.2c during intraday trading following the latest announcement, with more than 20 million shares changing hands in the company’s largest trading day since September last year.
The move into uranium comes after management of Javelin recently passed from former DJ Carmichaels part-owner Matthew Blake to well-known corporate finance executive Brett Mitchell. Mitchell is a co-founder of West Perth boutique corporate advisory and venture capital firm Chieftain Securities.
He has also founded or been a director of multiple ASX listed companies.
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By Michael Philipps
