TNT Mines has released a string of high-grade uranium results from its East Canyon project in Utah. These results are the balance of the company’s recent underground sampling program in the northern project area and have returned assays grading up to 12,700 ppm uranium oxide and 4.53 per cent vanadium pentoxide.
The company has now completed its initial mapping and sampling program over the historic None Such and Bonanza mines, with the assays having been received for a series of “‘too hot to handle” samples that could not be processed in the United States, or “US”. These highly radioactive samples had to be couriered to Canada where they were assayed by ALS in Vancouver.
This final batch of channel samples has returned a wealth of high-grade uranium and vanadium results including the above-mentioned 1m intercept in addition to 0.6m at 6,900 ppm uranium oxide and 2.82 per cent vanadium pentoxide and 2m at 5,200 ppm uranium oxide and 2.87 per cent vanadium pentoxide.
The company says that its initial work programs have exceeded expectations, with the workings at both Bonanza and None Such being more extensive than anticipated and sampling also showing grades than previously indicated in historical documentation. TNT’s work also indicates historical mining has left a substantial envelope of remnant uranium mineralisation that has yet to be properly tested utilising modern exploration techniques.
TNT’s East Canyon project lies between the towns of Moab and Monticello in Utah, in the western US. The company’s mineral claims cover more than 4,000 hectares of the Uravan Mineral Belt that has a history of mining dating back to the late 19th century.
The Company’s tenure hosts several historic mining areas including the Blackhawk-Loya Ray mining centre in the south and the Bonanza group in the north. TNT’s exploration to date has been focused around this northern mining area and included programs centred on the expansive Bonanza and None Such underground mines.
The uranium-vanadium mineralisation at East Canyon is sediment-hosted with the target stratigraphy, the Salt Wash Member, outcropping over more than 8 square kilometres within the company’s recently expanded tenure.
The Uravan Mineral Belt is home to a number of significant uranium and vanadium deposits. Mineralisation is hosted by near surface, flat lying sediments with ore bodies occurring as both individual deposits and in clusters. The size of the uraniferous deposits throughout the field varies but can range from a few hundred thousand tonnes to several million tonnes of ore.
Historical production in the Uravan Belt is estimated at an imposing 86 mlbs of uranium at an average grade of 0.24 per cent uranium oxide whilst vanadium production tips the scales at 441 mlbs at an average grade of 1.25 per cent vanadium pentoxide. Production across the Uravan field has been facilitated in modern times by the nearby White Mesa Mill.
Energy Fuels Inc’s White Mesa Mill is located a mere 50km south of TNT’s project area and is the only permitted and operating conventional uranium mill in the US.
TNT’s exploration is now moving into a drilling phase with the planning and permitting of an initial reconnaissance program across the Bonanza mining centre now underway. The company continues to assess other opportunities in the region, and other prospective regions in North America, and is expected to evaluate a number of the other prospects in the East Canyon in the lead up to drilling in the coming months.
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