Canadian firm Denison Mines has announced the discovery of high-grade uranium mineralisation, which could be a satellite deposit for its Phoenix in-situ recovery operation that is currently advancing through the environmental assessment process.
The second last drill hole of the 2020 regional exploration programme at Wheeler River delivered the new high-grade uranium mineralisation of up to 7.66% U3O8.
Drill hole WR-741AD2 intersected the mineralisation about 4 km from the Phoenix deposit.
In addition to high-grade uranium, the assay results from WR-741AD2 are highlighted by the presence of high-grade nickel: 2.14% U3O8 over 4 m, including 7.66% U3O8 over 1 m, from 640.3 m to 644.3 m; and 4.29% nickel over 6.5 m, including grades of up to 19.1% nickel, from 637.8 m to 644.3 m.
"The new high-grade mineralisation at K West was discovered with our second last drill hole of the season. As a result, there remains potential for us to delineate a broader mineralised zone, as the new mineralised intersection is open on section to the footwall side of WR-741AD2 and for several hundred metres along strike in both directions,” said Denison exploration director Andy Yackulic.
“The exploration team is also very interested in the presence of high-grade nickel mineralisation along the margins of the uranium mineralisation – as this type of zonation presents very similarly to other well-known and sizeable high-grade unconformity uranium deposits in the Athabasca basin, including Cigar Lake, Fox Lake, Tamarack, and Key Lake."