ASX-listed Valor Resources has outlined six high priority drill targets following an initial field visit, historical data review and airborne gravity survey at its Hidden Bay uranium project in Canada. The project is strategically located about 20km south of the revered Rabbit Lake mine where over 200 million ounces of uranium concentrate was once produced.
According to management, Hidden Bay represents one of its most prospective opportunities in the famed Athabasca Basin and the company could soon launch a first pass drilling program at the site – pending a radon test.
The tests are commonly used to identify the presence of naturally occurring radioactive gases.
The company says its new targets at Hidden Bay appear to be sitting in a similar geological setting to Cameco’s historical Rabbit Bay mine. Cameco is one of the world’s largest uranium producers and is currently responsible for around 16 per cent of global production from its assets in Canada and Kazakhstan.
The company’s Rabbit Bay mine was once considered North America’s longest producing uranium mine churning out concentrate for over four decades until it was placed under care and maintenance in 2016.
Given the ground’s solid history, Valor has earmarked the zone as its principal exploration target and says the region presents a good opportunity to sniff out basement and unconformity-style uranium deposits – two of the commodity’s top producing assets.
The Athabasca Basin, where the company unveiled its six new targets is rich in both deposits and is amongst the top producing uranium hot spots in the world.
Adding to the ground’s allure is its limited exploration. Valor says only a single hole has been plunged around its Hidden Bay tenements over the last 35 years.
The company is now looking to run the rule over the ground using modern exploration techniques – something that it yet to be completed at Hidden Bay.
Valor’s Hidden Bay project spans 32 square kilometres and is about 800km north of Saskatoon in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.
The country is something of an uranium powerhouse punching out about 390,000 metric tonnes a year with grades as high as 20 per cent uranium – almost 100 times greater than the global average.
A major slice of this is exported, finding its way into nuclear power stations that ultimately deliver electricity.
The price of uranium is currently floating around US$49 per pound, down from yearly highs of US$58 amid concerns of lower demand.
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