| |
In January 2006, Atna's wholly owned Canyon Resources signed an exploration, development and operating agreement with New Horizon Uranium Corporation (NHU.V) to form the Converse Uranium Joint Venture. Later that same year the Converse JV organized the Sand Creek Joint Venture with High Plains Uranium, now known as Uranium One (TSX:UUU). These joint ventures were formed with the objective to explore and develop areas of known uranium occurrences located along the southern end of the Powder River Basin in Wyoming.
During 2006 and 2007 New Horizon completed 30 rotary drill holes totaling approximately 22,000 feet. Drilling results have provided valuable information regarding the location of a uranium-bearing roll front, its apparent configuration and characteristics of the host rocks. Uranium mineralization had previously been identified in clastic units of the White River Group of sedimentary formations which trend through the Sand Creek JV area.
Highlights from the 2006/2007 drill programs include:
• 22 holes encountering >0.02% U3O8
• 6 feet 0.288% U3O8
• 13 feet 0.142% U3O8
• 10 feet 0.119% U3O8
• 12 feet 0.054% U3O8
• 10.5 feet 0.066% U3O8
New Horizon plans to complete additional drilling at Sand Creek. The planned drilling program will fill in areas to nominal 150 to 300 foot centers along the White River trend and add more step-out holes in known mineralized but less explored areas.
BACKGROUND
In the late 1970s Sabine Production Company explored an area of uranium mineralization just south of the town of Douglas, Wyoming. Sabine drilled 114 drill holes for a total of about 68,000 feet. Initial exploration activity in the early 1980's by Canyon and a joint venture partner consisted of 88 drill holes for approximately 69,000 feet. This program identified multiple uranium roll fronts in the project area.
Uranium mineralization in the Converse Project area is hosted in various sandstones of the White River Group, which is composed of the Brule Formation and the underlying Chadron Formation. Both of these formations were deposited in a continental environment. The Brule Formation is predominantly a sequence of clays and siltstones that are locally inter-bedded with conglomerate and sandstone. The Chadron Formation is composed of a lower unit of sandstones, conglomerates, and red to green siltstones; the upper portion of the Chadron is principally green claystone.
The channel sandstones of the White River Group are lenticular in nature and locally bulge from 5- to 20-feet in thickness and locally range up to 45-feet in thickness. The sandstones and conglomerates, most abundant in the lower Chadron Formation, are arkosic and commonly coarse-grained, poorly sorted, and angular to subangular. They are cemented with both calcite and silica. The basal Chadron Formation was probably deposited by streams in an alluvial fan environment. The large quantities of fine-grained sediment (silts and clays) suggest that significant deposition occurred in overbank and channel-margin environments.
Cameco's Crow Butte deposit, also hosted by the White River Group, is located near Crawford, Nebraska, about 80 miles to the east of the Sand Creek JV lands. This deposit has been in production for over a decade and originally contained in excess of 25 million pounds of uranium oxide. Cameco published remaining reserves at this deposit are 6.5 million lbs U3O8.
Historical data show that numerous surface radioactive anomalies and uranium anomalies in well waters occur in the Converse Project area. The White River sediments are uraniferous in the entire project area and exhibit geologic features similar to Cameco's uranium deposit. The Company believes that excellent potential exists for the discovery of additional uranium deposits on lands where it has mineral rights. Mineralization is believed to occur at depths which range from 600 to 700 feet. The uranium mineralization is hosted in the basal sandstones of the White River Group near the pre-White River unconformity.
Drilling during 1981 and 1982 in the project area by Canyon and its prior joint venture partner, successfully located uranium mineralization by down-hole gamma logging of its drill holes. That program identified the potential for multiple uranium roll- fronts at the Scott Ranch portion of the Project Area. The mineralization is believed to occur as individual deposits (linear pods) which collectively extend over several miles in length and up to several hundred feet in width. The channel sandstones hosting uranium mineralization are believed to be bounded by impermeable clays and shales, a situation ideal for in situ mining.
| |
