THOMPSON PROJECT, MOAB, UTAH

USGS 1950's

  • 6 programs for >1,700 drill holes from 200,000 feet identified 140,000t (non-JORC compliant)

  • Average drilling grades 0.25% U3O8  1.3%  Va2O5


Deposits already defined and requiring drill-out, early potential for resource definition.

In Situ Recovery potential.

 *     *     *

The Thompson Project is located near the junction of Interstate 70 and County Road 163, 30km north of the regional centre of Moab in Grand County, Utah. The project area covers the Yellow Cat area of the historical Thompson uranium mining district.

Uranium mineralization in the Thompson deposits occurs in the Jurassic Morrison Formation, in four sandstone lenses and in conglomeratic sandstone, as the mineral carnotite (a vanadium-uranium mineral).

The Thompson Project comprises 210 tenements which extend over an area of 27km2. The Thompson district has a history of uranium mining dating to 1911, finishing in the early 1980s. A large number of abandoned mine workings occur across the Company’s leases, ranging in size from prospector’s pits to the significant Ringtail underground mine. Previous mining was mainly underground, targeting narrow moderate-grade ore bodies, above the water table. The deepest workings were in the Ringtail Mine where ore bodies to a depth of 55 metres were worked. Mineralisation worked in the next most substantial mine, the Blackstone, was at 36 metres.

Mineralisation already defined at Thompson deeper than historical mining activity includes Area G, also known as the Pioneer Prospect, where intersections included:

Area G/Pioneer Prospect, Thompson Project – Significant Intersections

Hole

North(m)

East(m)

RL(m)

From(ft)

To(ft)

Thick(ft)

Thick(m)

U3O8 %

U3O8 lb/t

980

4301094

625135

1515

471.7

474.4

2.7

0.8

0.34

7.7

 

 

 

including

473.0

473.6

0.6

0.2

1.31

29

975

4301044

624981

1514

477.0

481.6

4.6

1.4

0.62

14

 

 

 

including

480.3

481.2

0.9

0.3

2.95

66

989

4301040

625016

1516

481.6

484.3

2.7

0.8

0.38

8.5

The uranium deposits within the Thompson Project correspond to palaeochannels within the Salt Wash and overlying Brushy Basin Members of the Jurassic aged Morrison Formation. These deposits consist of thin irregular to tabular bodies, ranging in thickness from 1 to 4m and typically extending up to 80m in length. Medium to coarse grained sandstone is the main uranium-bearing unit, with much of the uranium occurring as interstitial material associated with plant and other organic material within these units. Vanadium mineralisation is also present within the Thompson Project where it is intimately associated with uranium within the sandstone units of the Morrison Formation. It is typically recovered with uranium in dual-circuit processing mills, such as the operating White Mesa Mill at Blanding, Utah.

The Company’s exploration programme at Thompson is designed to extend and drill-out well defined mineralisation such as the Ringtail and Pioneer deposits, and to test the extent of mineralized channels indicated by sparser drilling and by the mapping of channels defined by shallower mine workings. The Company believes there is great potential for generation of new ore grade mineralisation along channel and at depth.

Historical drilling completed by the USGS at Thompson during the 1950s was constrained as to depth by the means of mining employed at the time. No mineralisation was sought or followed below approximately 170 metres depth.

During this period, the USGS carried out widely spaced wagon and diamond drilling programmes in the Yellow Cat and Squaw Park areas of the Thompson mining district. This work confirmed the uranium potential of the Thompson area and resulted in the definition of a number of uranium ‘reserves’. There is currently insufficient drilling data to be able to generate a JORC compliant report of resources and reserves.