Vancouver-based junior CanAlaska and uranium major Cameco have formed a joint venture (JV) on the West McArthur project, 6 km northwest of the McArthur River uranium mine.
CanAlaska is the operator and 70% owner of the West McArthur JV, which is located in the Athabasca basin region, dubbed the ‘Saudi Arabia of uranium’, owing to the area’s large, high-grade uranium resources.
The new JV partners have agreed on a C$2.4-million exploration budget for 2019 drilling and geophysics, focusing on extending the footprint of the three uranium mineralised discovery holes completed since last year.
In August last year, Cameco intersected the first high-grade uranium mineralised intervals on the northern portion of the 5-km-long Grid 5 target area at the West McArthur uranium project. The project extends more than 36 000 ha.
To date, three holes have intersected mineralisation, up to a maximum of 1.51% U3O8 over 5.5 m.
CanAlaska said that the most obvious target for the next drilling would be close to the intersections in drill holes WMA042 and WMA042A, where a 5 m uranium mineralised horizon was intersected at the unconformity.
"The C10 conductor package within the West McArthur property, just 4 km west of the Fox Lake uranium deposits, is showing strong evidence of multiple zones of uranium mineralisation associated with cross trending fault structures. The current reconnaissance drilling has given us mineralised targets for detailed delineation,” said CanAlaska president Peter Dasler.