Okapi Resources has launched a helicopter-supported review at its wholly owned Newnham Lake and Perch projects, part of its larger Athabasca Basin uranium tenements in Canada. The work is part of a maiden exploration program including prospecting, outcrop sampling and vegetation analysis to help identify favourable structural settings for uranium mineralisation.
Okapi’s campaign comes after a comprehensive analysis of satellite images and historical exploration data acquired across the two project areas generated a swarm of compelling targets calling for a second look.
It will initially cast its gaze towards a pair of underexplored priority areas in the north-eastern perimeter of Newnham Lake, in addition to an area further north at Perch. The company says the zones house exposed unconformity contacts in Archean-aged rocks that demonstrate alteration and oxidation characteristics coherent with potential uranium mineralisation.
Okapi has its foot on four areas prospective for basement-hosted uranium at its Newnham Lake project.
The zones are on the periphery of its Athabasca Basin tenements and are thought to house a suite of faults.
The goal is to identify areas that may cover basement fault extension and areas with multiple intersecting faults.
According to a recent review by Okapi of satellite imagery data, all four zones also display areas of enhanced hydrothermal alteration, an indicator that may point to uranium mineralisation.
To work up a set of drill targets at Newnham Lake, satellite imagery will be combined with 3D-modelled surface and drill data. The combined information could determine whether the company sinks as many as 200 holes at the project next year.
At the nearby Perch project, Okpai has outlined another four targets that mandate a further review. The areas host a robust set of intersecting structures that Okapi says corresponds with historically defined uranium.
Importantly, management says both Newnham Lake and Perch have ingredients suggesting the projects could host world-class uranium deposits. Historical drilling across the two operations has thrown up a suite of notable results running up to 2000 parts per million triuranium octoxide in very shallow programs.
Okapi Resources Managing Director, Mr Andrew Ferrier said: “We are excited about our maiden field exploration program in the Athabasca basin. Our properties at Newnham Lake and Perch remain our highest priority, with historical drilling showing anomalous radioactivity within multiple drillholes, favourable lithologies and untested basement hosted potential at a relatively shallow depth."
“The field program is mainly helicopter supported and plenty of pre-planning work was required to allow us to commence our exploration program.”
A recent report by financial services provider BMO Capital Markets suggests the price of uranium could rise to about US$58 per pound amid ongoing unrest in Eastern Europe, a key supplier of the material, as countries look to secure their own supply of the energy source.
The price of the commodity is currently hovering around US$48 per pound.
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