VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Uranium explorer NexGen Energy has started work on its winter 2018 drill programme at the fully owned Rook I property, in the Athabasca basin of Saskatchewan.
The winter 2018 programme will comprise about 25 000 m using eight drill rigs.
Key objectives include testing the Arrow Deposit's A3 high-grade zone definition, targeting the large untested areas surrounding the A1 to A5 shears; potential extensions of the shears, particularly to the north east; and definition of the newly discovered high-grade mineralisation northwest of the A1 shear.
At South Arrow, drilling will continue to focus on defining the extent of uranium mineralisation in all directions. Further, highly ranked geophysical targets on the Arrow, South Arrow and Mirror conductors will also be targeted owing to results of geophysical surveys conducted mainly in 2016 and 2017.
Meanwhile, NexGen is continuing work on prefeasibility-stage technical studies, including geotechnical work, hydrogeological work and metallurgy as the company works towards publishing a maiden prefeasibility study by the third quarter this year.
"The winter 2018 drilling will focus on testing in areas that hold high potential for additional mineralised shears, extensions of existing mineralised shears and new high-grade sub zones in close proximity to Arrow. Further, drilling at South Arrow, located 400 m south of Arrow, will continue to focus on determining the extent of mineralisation discovered in 2017," stated CEO Leigh Curyer in a news release.
He added that NexGen would start to test highly ranked geophysical targets within a 2 km radius of Arrow and along the Patterson Corridor, which is largely unexplored on Rook I, yet hosts four known uranium mineralised zones.
NexGen also reported cash in the bank of C$155-million.