VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Uranium producer Orano Canada (formerly Areva Canada Resources) has reported a 287% increase in the compliant inferred resource at its Midwest project, located in the eastern Athabasca basin, northern Saskatchewan, while the indicated resource grew by 4.2%.

The Midwest project is now estimated to contain an inferred mineral resources of 18.2-million pounds of triuranium octoxide (U₃O₈) held in 846 000 t grading 1% U₃O₈, above a cutoff grade of 0.1% U₃O₈.

The project now also holds an estimated indicated resource of 50.78-million pounds of yellowcake, held in 1.02-million tonnes grading 2.3% U₃O₈.

The Midwest project is a joint venture owned 69.16% by Orano; 25.17% by Denison Mines; and 5.67% by OURD, with Orano being the project operator.

“With the application of more rigorous and robust estimation procedures, in accordance with National Instrument (NI) 43-101, we are pleased to see a significant increase in overall project resources, without additional recent drilling. These resources add to Denison’s growing inventory of high-grade uranium resources concentrated in the infrastructure-rich eastern portion of the Athabasca basin,” Denison VP for exploration Dale Verran stated.

In November 2017, Orano completed an updated mineral resource estimate for the Midwest Main and Midwest A deposits according to Canada’s NI 43-101, which was subsequently reviewed and audited by SRK on behalf of Denison. Before completing the mineral resource estimate, Orano completed an extensive amount of work to improve the drill hole datasets and the geological and mineralisation models for both deposits – with the objective of bringing the dataset and mineral resource estimates up to a more current and rigorous standard.

The project is host to the high-grade Midwest Main and Midwest A uranium deposits, which lie along strike and within 6 km of the J Zone deposit and Huskie discovery on Denison’s 64.22% Waterbury Lake project. Collectively, the Midwest and Waterbury deposits occur within close proximity to existing uranium mining and milling infrastructure – including provincial highways and powerlines, as well as Denison’s 22.5%-owned McClean Lake mill.