Otish basin seeing increased activity

Uranium exploration activity is at a 25-year high in the Otish sandstone basin of north-central Quebec. While that would probably still be true if one prospector was carrying a scintillometer, the discovery of the Matoush uranium deposit has brought junior activity back to an area that merits it.

An initial resource calculation for the AM-15 Zone on the Matoush project shows a small but fairly high-grade uranium deposit on the project’s southern claim block.

Consulting firm Scott Wilson Roscoe Postle, contracted by Matoush owner Strateco Resources (RSC-T, SRSIF-O), assigned estimates to four lenses in the Matoush Fault Zone, based on a 44-hole database of drilling and analysis. Two of the four lenses have 201,000 tonnes of indicated resources, grading an average 0.79% U3O8. Inferred resources in all four of the lenses amount to 65,000 tonnes at 0.43% U3O8.

The largest lens is the Main Lens, with 164,000 tonnes grading 0.87% U3O8 in indicated resources and 36,000 tonnes grading 0.54% in inferred. The South Lens is the other zone with an indicated resource, amounting to 37,000 tonnes grading 0.4% U3O8.

The estimate used a cutoff grade of 0.05% U3O8 and capped all analyses at 7% U3O8. To be included in the estimate, intersections had to have a minimum true width of 2 metres.

The resource calculation did not include the nearby AM-8 zone, and there are a number of other mineralized intersections around AM-15 that have not been thoroughly investigated.

The Matoush deposit is on the main southern block of an irregularly shaped land package held by Strateco. Most of the ground straddles a major north-striking fault in the sandstones, which is host to the Matoush mineralization.

About 5 km north of the deposit, Strateco has discovered a boulder-field occurrence, with sandstone boulders that show radioactivity levels anywhere from 10 to 250 times typical background values.

The boulder field is about 400 metres wide and 1,500 metres long, and runs about 10 east of north, along the known ice direction.

In the bedrock, Strateco has a uranium occurrence in sandstone 14 km north of the Matoush deposit on the property’s northern claim block. The structure is northeast-striking, unlike the mainly north-south orientation of the Matoush mineralization, but radioactivity is twice to five times the level of surface showings at AM-15 and AM-8.

Consolidated Pacific Bay Minerals (CBP-V, CPBMF-O) started work in July on its claim blocks, which adjoin Strateco’s northern claim block on the east and its southern claim block on the west, north and east sides. Pacific Bay has also outlined a series of boulder trains on its own property, mainly in the area immediately around Strateco’s southern claim block.

Another area identified by airborne magnetic and radiometric surveys is about 10 km southeast of the Matoush deposit on Pacific Bay’s Block B. Down-ice from a magnetic feature, surface prospecting has located uranium-bearing sandstone boulders with about four to five times the background level of radioactivity.

Northeast about 12 km from the Matoush deposit, and on Pacific Bay ground, there is a boulder occurrence, and two other individual boulders have been located 6 km southwest and 3 km east of Matoush.

Testing these targets will have to wait for a helicopter-portable drill, which Pacific Bay will first have to find and contract. An earlier plan to bring in a heavy drill had to be cancelled when no medium-lift helicopters were available to move it; the ground is swampy and prevents moving the drill overland.

About 70 km southwest of Matoush, Pacific Bay also holds the largest land position in the Papaskwasati basin, an area underlain by sediments equivalent to those in the Otish basin. Drilling in 1969 by Soquem discovered anomalously high radioactivity in basin sandstones, and the drill holes, along with two surface uranium occurrences, line up with the projection of the Archean-aged Takwa greenstone belt below the younger cover rocks. Greenstone belts below Proterozoic cover are often considered prospective for unconformity-type uranium deposits.

Santoy Resources (SAN-V, SANRF-O) and Melkior Resources (MKR-V, MKRIF-O) are drilling on their property at Lac Laparre, about 20 km northwest of Matoush. The program was interrupted by a helicopter crash in late May, which killed a pilot, and no results have come out yet.

The two companies are earning a two-thirds interest in part of the property from Majescor Resources (MAJ-V, RSMJF-O).

Stellar Pacific Ventures (SPX-V, SPVIF-O) holds two small blocks in the area, one sandwiched by the Melkior ground and the other tacked on the eastern side of Strateco’s northern block. Stellar has so far not announced any work on the property.

Kodiak Exploration (KXL-V, KXLAF-O), however, has contracted for an 11,000-line-km airborne survey to measure magnetics, radiometrics and VLF electromagnetics, with a budget of $800,000. The survey will cover 10 properties, including five on the eastern edge of the Otish basin, three in the Matoush area and two on the northeastern rim of the Papaskwasati basin.

The most advanced is the UR property, about 100 km east of the Matoush discovery on the southern rim of the Otish basin near its eastern end. A former operator, Uranerz, found several boulder trains with high-grade uranium mineralization in the 1970s and 1980s, but when the uranium price cratered in the early 1980s, it suspended work before drilling the targets.

Icon Industries (ICN-V, ICNJF-O), well to the north, also has old Uranerz ground, including two showings, Jean, in bedrock, and Lac Henri, a boulder field. Boulders at Lac Henri, discovered in 1978, averaged 0.11% U3O8.

Cameco (CCO-T, CCJ-N) is active in the southern part of the Otish basin, as well.

Dios Explorations (DOS-V, DIOSF-O) is also chasing boulders on its property, which links the west end of the Otish basin with the northeast end of the Papaskwasati basin. A 2-metre-long sandstone boulder assayed 0.2% U3O8, and boulder prospecting results along with lake-sediment sampling and airborne radiometrics.

Golden Valley Mines (GZZ-V, GLVMF-O) and Lexam Explorations (LEX-V, LEXEF-O) have an airborne magnetic and radiometric survey complete over their blocks in the Papaskwasati basin, and prospecting and ground geophysics are under way. Lexam is earning a 50% interest in the properties by spending $3 million over three years, with Golden Valley maintaining management of the programs.

Studies are under way by local municipal governments on the feasibility of an all-season road project to connect the Otish region with Mistassini Post, where it would join Quebec highway 167.