Hathor drills hit high-grade uranium

VANCOUVER — After its stock surged on news in late February of highly anomalous uranium-mineralized drill intercepts, Hathor Exploration (HAT-V, HTHXF-O) posted further gains on assays confirming wide, high-grade U3O8 values from its 90%- owned Midwest Northeast project, in the Athabasca basin.

Hole MWNE-08-12 returned 11.9 metres (from 261.5 metres down-hole depth) of 5.29% U3O8, including narrow intervals of up to 40.2% U3O8 across 20 cm. The intercept is within a wider 46- metre zone of mineralization.

The stock closed up almost 50% on the news, gaining 64 to $1.94 per share.

Hathor says the high-grade uranium mineralization occurs in basement rocks comprised of a mix of variably clay-altered to clay-replaced pelitic gneiss, graphitic pelitic gneiss, granitic pegmatite and micro-granite.

“The mineralization represents a non-traditional, non-conductive target where no airborne EM anomalies are present, a new style of target for the Athabasca basin,” said Alistair McCready, Hathor’s senior project geologist in a statement. “It signifies the need for exploration methodologies to evolve and utilize modern, cutting-edge techniques, such as reflection seismic to find structure — the key to these deposits.”

A week earlier, the company announced that scintillometer analysis of core from hole MWNE-08- 12 indicated about 30 metres of elevated radioactivity — 1,000 to 1,500 counts per second (cps) — including highly radioactive zones (5,000 cps to greater than 9,999 cps) that were off-scale.

The Midwest Northeast property, in the northeastern part of the Athabasca, in Saskatchewan, is adjacent to the advanced-stage Midwest uranium project being developed as an open-pit operation by joint-venture partners Areva (ARVCF-O), which holds 69.16%, Denison Mines (DML-T, DNN-X) with 25.17%, and the Japanese group OURD Canada, at 5.67%. Construction is slated to start in mid-2009. The Midwest orebody hosts reserves of 360,000 tonnes grading 4% U3O8 and is expected to produce roughly 36 million lbs. U3O8.

With just over half of the planned 8,000-metre drill program complete, Hathor has finished 14 of a planned 24 holes at Midwest Northeast. Terra Ventures (TAS-V, TASFF-O) holds an 8% carried interest in the project.

A hostile takeover bid Hathor launched for Northern Continental Resources (NCR-V, NCLRF-O) in November, which offered 0.4 of a share for each Northern Continental share, expired in late February. The two companies are partners at the Russell Lake uranium project in the eastern Athabasca.