Recent drilling by Hathor Exploration (hat-v) has more than doubled the original resource estimate for the Roughrider uranium discovery on the Midwest Northeast property in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca basin.
An updated resource estimate shows Roughrider contains an indicated 17.2 million lbs. uranium oxide, based on 394,000 tonnes averaging 1.98% U3O8. A high-grade zone of 58,200 tonnes grading 10.68% U3O8 accounts for 13.7 million lbs.
An additional 10.6 million lbs. of U3O8 are inferred, based on 43,600 tonnes grading 11.03% U3O8. Roughrider was conservatively estimated in 2009 to contain an indicated and inferred resource totaling 12 million lbs. uranium oxide.
The updated resource estimate was prepared by SRK Consulting using assay results from 174 drill holes totaling more than 60,000 metres. The drilling was completed during five successive summer and winter drill campaigns, starting in 2008 when Roughrider was first discovered. The deposit has been drilled off at less than 10-metre centres in the core zone and to approximately 25 metres elsewhere in the deposit.
The Roughrider deposit is defined along a strike length of 220 metres and a width of up to 100 metres. The top of the deposit sits at an average depth of 215 metres below surface. Hathor believes Roughrider is amenable to open-pit mining.
Metallurgical testwork suggest extraction recoveries of 98% and low arsenic levels.
Hathor is quick to stress that the updated resource estimate for Roughrider does not include the more recent Roughrider East discovery, which lies a further 200 metres east along strike.
Roughrider East was discovered last year at the end of the summer program. The discovery hole into Roughrider East intercepted 28 metres grading 12.71% U3O8, starting from 302 metres down-hole. Since then, Hathor has put some 50 holes into the new discovery, defining 220 metres of strike length.
Hathor is awaiting final results from this year’s summer drilling before starting a preliminary resource model for Roughrider East. The only hole from the summer program with complete assay results reported to date is hole 648, which hit 63.5 metres grading 7.75% U3O8, starting from 237 metres down-hole. The intercept included 17.5 metres averaging 24.28% U3O8.
Hole 648 was an infill hole drilled into the heart of the Roughrider East zone. “Roughrider East represents further significant upside for the overall resource potential of the project,” reported Hathor.
The Midwest Northeast property is in the eastern Athabasca basin, 8 km north of Points North, a service hub, and 400 km north of La Ronge. Hathor owns a 90% interest, while Terra Ventures (tas-v) owns the remainder and is carried through to completion of a feasibility study.
The 5.4-sq.-km property is 11 km west of the McClean Lake mill complex, and less than 5 km along strike of the Midwest uranium project owned by Denison Mines (dml-t, dnn-x), Areva Resources Canada and OURD Canada.
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