Forte Energy (LON:FTE, ASX:FTE) has commenced reverse circulation (RC) drilling at the A238 uranium anomaly in Mauritania and expects the programme to allow JORC compliant resource for the prospect to be calculated in H1 2011.
As was expected, the mineralised horizon was intersected in all holes drilled in the first several days.
The uranium mineralisation remains open at depth and along strike with surface mapping suggesting a probable strike of well over 2 kilometres (km).
The drilling programme is designed to fully define the strike extent and infill the thick, high grade core.
The anomaly has been indicated to have the potential for a shallow, large volume medium grade deposit.
A238 is the first target of the planned 5,000 metre RC programme in Mauritania, which will be followed by a 1,500 metre programme of diamond drilling scheduled for November and December 2010.
The commencement of the drill programme was delayed slightly by severe rainfall and flooding in the region. This has delayed the arrival of some support vehicles, all of which are now expected tomorrow. As a result, drilling is initially concentrating on the shallow strike extensions to the A238 mineralisation with the deeper holes into the thick central core of the prospect being undertaken when the bulk of the drill rods arrive on site.
The drilling programme will also allow Forte to test the new sample assay process in Mauritania, which is expected to be significantly shorter than the procedure it had in place previously.
The company previously had to send assays to Mali for pre-preparation. Now, however, a pre-preparation facility has been established near the iron ore mining town of Zouerate in Northern Mauritania, as close to the company's field operations as is practical, which was commissioned last weekend.
Surface rock chip samples have already been submitted by Forte to test the preparation and logistical process.
The current programme is following up RC holes totalling 1,444 metres drilled earlier this year, which returned “extremely positive” results, showing wide intersections of high grade uranium over a strike length of 1.2 km.
The intersections included 80 metres grading 362 parts per million (ppm) uranium including 12 metres at 704 ppm uranium, 41 metres grading 450 ppm uranium including 8 metres grading 814 ppm uranium, 37 metres grading 347 ppm uranium including 5 metres grading 1,000 ppm uranium and 50 metres grading 345 ppm uranium including 34 metres grading 400 ppm uranium.
The highest grade intersected over 1 metre was 1,352 ppm uranium.
A238 is hosted within Forte’s 100% owned uranium exploration licences in the Zednes region of Mauritania. The prospect is located 55 km south-east of the town of Bir Moghrein and 135 km north-west of the company's Bir En
Nar project.