JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed uranium company Uran has entered into an option to purchase the Victor tungsten project, in California.

The project, located in the historic tungsten mining district of Inyo county, consists of 13 granted patented lode mining claims, covering a small, high-grade tungsten mine.

Uran, through its wholly owned subsidiary Juno Minerals, has paid an option fee of $50 000 under the terms of the agreement, and has the right to acquire a 100% stake in the property, by paying $150 000, within two years.

The Victor project was mined for tungsten and copper prior to World War I, and briefly after World War II. Ore from the mine was processed at the Bishop mine, also in California, however, the planned construction of a tungsten mill on the property failed when the government price support programme for tungsten ended in the early 1950s.

There has been no work done on the property since that time.

Assay results have now been received for 19 rock chip samples, taken in October, and most samples evaluated have shown copper and tungsten values, with elevated uranium and molybdenum values, as well as anomalous gold and silver.

Uran stated that the mineralised skarns at Victor, which were not exploited by historic mining, had significant potential to host economic tungsten and copper. However, because there were no expenditure conditions on the Victor leases, which were granted in perpetuity, exploration on the project would be deferred until work at Juno Minerals’ other project, the Finley basin in Montana, was completed, and economic conditions improved.