Valor is waiting with bated breath after maiden drilling at its Hook Lake uranium project in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, encountered elevated radioactivity.
Three of the six drillholes at the S-Zone target hit elevated radioactivity and associated alteration of varying widths with DDHL22-002 intersecting traces of uraninite mineralisation from depths of 104.3m to 108m down-hole.
This zone can be correlated between three holes on the drill section and potentially represents a sub-vertical structure.
While Valor Resources (ASX:VAL) will have to wait on assay results to gain a clearer picture of just what is present at Hook Lake, the elevated radioactivity and associated alteration are certainly positive signs that the uranium encountered in surface sampling is not a fluke.
Good news comes at a time when uranium prices continue to trend upwards on geopolitical concerns – with Russia being a major global supplier of yellowcake.
Executive chairman George Bauk said the alteration and elevated radioactivity seen in several of the holes drilled at S-Zone is encouraging and that data from this maiden drill program will be combined with upcoming gravity survey data to define the next round of drill targets.
“We have an exciting year ahead in Canada as we work through all the historical data across our seven projects,” he added.
“We plan to commence work at the Cluff Lake project shortly and look to undertake field work on our five other properties in 2022. The team has done a great job at Hook Lake and following assay results, final interpretation and the upcoming gravity survey, we plan to be back drilling again at Hook Lake soon.
“Our team is planning to be on the ground in the next quarter and hope to be following up some of the other uranium targets along with some interesting REE results uncovered in 2021.”
Next steps
Valor will start an airborne gravity survey in May 2022 over the entirety of the 25,846 hectare project, which is located about 60km east of the Key Lake uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan – a known uranium province with historical production of more than 500Mlbs of U3O8 from McArthur River and Key Lake.
This will be followed by an on-ground field program comprising geological mapping, prospecting, surface geochemical sampling, drill target definition and the next phase of diamond drilling.
The company has already identified West Way prospect – where surface sampling in 2021 returned assays up to 0.636% U3O8 and 11.1g/t silver, and the Nob Hill prospect that returned assays up to 1.01% total rare earth oxides as requiring follow-up exploration.
This article was developed in collaboration with Valor Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
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