The highest ever uranium grades I have ever seen reported at a surficial uranium deposit were released yesterday by Uracan Resources at Grandroy zone of their North Shore Property in southeastern Quebec, Canada.
The company had results from two Grandroy holes – one that was 5.4 meters of 0.213% U3O8, or 2130 ppm, (parts per million), and one that was 4.5 meters of 0.194% U3O8, or 1943 ppm. This equates to 4.3 pounds per ton and 3.9 pounds per ton respectively.
Surficial uranium deposits are the type of geology found in the Namibian uranium deposits, such as Paladin’s Langer Heinrich mine and the giant Trekkopje deposit that Areva owns. (All the different types of uranium deposits and some typical grades can be found here: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf26.html).
The Langer Heinrich mine is one of (if not the) highest grade surficial deposit in the world at 800 ppm. Trekkopje’s uranium grade is about 140 ppm, or just under one-third of a pound.
Uracan’s results from Quebec are two-and-a-half times that of Langer Heinrich, and four times higher than the other Namibian surficial deposits held by Extract Resources (EXT-TSX) and Bannerman Resources (BAN-TSX), and 15 x that of Trekkopje.
Underground deposits have reported higher grades, but they are a different style deposit. The technical problems surrounding these deposits are helping push up uranium prices. Cameco has still not resolved issues surrounding its Cigar Lake deposit in Saskatchewan, and BHP’s Olympic Dam mine in Australia is reducing uranium output by 50% for six months as it repairs a main mining shaft. Olympic Dam produces 7% of the world’s uranium.
Uracan says drilling can and will go year round, and at only 50 m depth per hole, the drilling is fast and inexpensive.
The Grandroy zone is 7 km north of the company’s Double S zone, which host a resource of 154.9 million tonnes grading 0.012% U3O8, for a total of 40.7 million pounds of U3O8.
Keith Schaefer
Vanguard Shareholder Solutions Inc.
1205-1095 W. Pender St.
Vancouver, B.C.
V6E 2M6
