www.royalresources.com.au
Royal Resources Limited is engaged in mineral exploration in Australia and the United States. Royal’s exploration activities are centered on the two commodities of iron ore and uranium. The Company’s Australian operations are focused on iron in the iron provinces of the Pilbara and the Midwest where Royal maintains an extensive tenements package, both in its own right and in joint venture. Royal’s United States operations are focused on uranium exploration in the area of the Colorado Plateau in the states of Utah, Colorado and Arizona.
Royal Resources drilling intersects uranium at Uravan Belt in Colorado
Royal Resources (ASX: ROY) has completed the initial drill testing of the Bush Canyon prospectin the Uravan Mineral Belt in Colorado, USA.
The first phase of drilling, comprising four holes for 1,140 feet (347m) returned 1.5 feet (0.45m) @ 0.118% (1180 ppm) eU3O81 from 337.8 feet (103m) in the last hole.
Immediate follow-up with the redrilling of the first three holes to greater depths and drilling of an eighth hole returned 1.4 feet (0.42m) @ 0.020% (200 ppm) eU3O8 from 341.6 feet (104m).
The uranium mineralisation is associated with copper mineralisation, in the form of azurite and malachite, a common association seen in the larger uranium deposits in this district.
Bitumen and other carbonaceous matter was also noted in the cuttings, a good reductant and necessary for uranium mineralisation.
The Bush Canyon prospect occurs on claims held by the Colorado Plateau Partners Joint Venture
(CPPJV) in the Egnar area of western Colorado.
The CPPJV is a 50:50 JV between Lynx-Royal (Royal 90%, Lynx E&M LLC 10%) and Toronto Stock Exchange listed Energy Fuels Resources (TSX: EFR) and is managed by Royal Resources.
The Bush Canyon target is based on an extension of an historic prospect drilled by the Cotter Corporation of the USA in the 1980s and purportedly containing uranium oxide grades of around 0.25%.
The CPPJV drilled a preliminary hole in the area in 2008 (EG-08-007) to 500 feet (152m) with no significant intercepts. Re-assessment of the geometry and stratigraphy of the area determined the present drilling target.
The company said neither of the two intercepts reported is of a grade typical of the historic ore grades (> 0.20% uranium oxide), but both are significant; in many cases in the Uravan Mineral Belt, minor mineralised holes can be lateral to deposits by only tens of feet.
Importantly, the intercepted mineralisation is open to the east and west.
A second phase of drilling, comprising up to ten holes, is being considered in the light of proposed drilling elsewhere in the Uravan Belt. At time of writing, all drilling activities have ceased in the area due to excessive snow cover and are unlikely to recommence until late May.
