Shares of Crosshair Energy (CXX-T, CXZ-X) were up 11.90% or 5¢ at 47¢ per share in mid-morning trading in Toronto after the junior announced it had raised the resource estimate for the Bootheel uranium project in southern Wyoming’s Shirley Basin.
The project now has indicated resources of 1.48 million pounds of uranium oxide (a 36% gain over its previous resource estimate of August 2009). Inferred resources add 3.13 million pounds of U3O8.
Breaking down the resource estimate, Bootheel’s Sundance formation contains 2.07 million short tons grading 0.036% U3O8 for 1.48 million pounds of uranium oxide. Inferred resources from the Sundance and Wind River formations total 3.99 million short tons at an average grade of 0.039% U3O8 for 3.13 million pounds of uranium oxide.
Crosshair expects to complete a preliminary economic assessment on Bootheel later this year.
The company believes that uranium at Bootheel’s Sundance formation could possibly be recovered using in-situ recovery techniques rather than conventional mining methods. The uranium mineralization at Sundance occurs within several different sandstone beds within the formation.
The updated resource is based on 169 drill holes totaling 26,189 metres and about 1,450 historic drill holes. The cut-off grade for the Sundance formation was 0.015% U3O8 and 0.020% for the Wind River formation. The cut-off grades were based on a long term price for U3)8 of US$70 per lb. and the estimated mining costs of a typical ISR project.
Crosshair holds a 75% interest in the project and Ur-Energy (URE-T, URG-X) holds the remaining 25% stake.
The Bootheel property was originally staked in 1958 by Kerr McGee Corp. Cherokee Exploration took it over in 1977 and then sold the project and database to Cameco Corp. (CCO-T, CCJ-N) in 1995. Cameco did limited drilling and evaluation of Bootheel’s in-situ recovery potential, but abandoned the project in 1998 due to low uranium prices at the time of about US$10 per lb.
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