COAL, URANIUM & OIL SANDS — JNR Resources surveys Athabasca Basin

JNR Resources (JNN-V) has completed airborne geophysical surveys over another three of its 10 uranium properties in the Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan.

Approximately 2,200 line-km were flown over portions of the Key Lake, West Bear and Cigar Lake North properties. This doubles the number of line-kilometres completed by JNR on the entire land package.

The surveys outlined several anomalies that coincide with surface geochemical anomalies. The best results came from the Key Lake property, and soon these will be followed by drilling.

Meanwhile, a second round of drilling has been completed on the Newnham Lake property. Five holes totalling 800 metres tested coincident geophysical and geochemical anomalies, all of which returned anomalous values requiring follow-up investigation.

JNR’s properties cover 265,000 ha of ground, all of which was acquired on the basis of government assessment data and current metallongenic models of unconformity-type uranium deposits. Such deposits are plentiful in the Athabasca Basin. Over the past 30 years, 18 have been discovered, representing a combined 500 million kg uranium.

Kennecott Canada Exploration, a unit of mining giant Rio Tinto (RTP-N), is contributing $1 million to the 1999 exploration program. In return, it has the right to select claim blocks in which it can earn a 65% working interest. Once these are selected, the major is required to spend $1 million annually until $25 million has been spent or a production decision has been reached, whichever comes first. As part of the deal, Kennecott can buy up to 9.9% of JNR’s fully diluted shares.

The high grade of the deposits in the region combined with the low discovery costs (less than $2 per kg) make the Basin an extremely attractive area for uranium exploration.