Standard Uranium Ltd (TSX-V:STND, OTCQB:STTDF) announced that planning is nearing completion for the inaugural drill program at the Canary uranium project in the Eastern Athabasca Basin, optioned to Mamba Exploration.
Mamba has the option to earn a 75% interest in the project by funding $6 million in exploration expenses over three years. It has secured funding for the Canary drill program, contributing towards the year-one expenditure requirements under the option agreement.
Standard Uranium said drill and helicopter contractors have been engaged for the inaugural drill program, which is slated to begin in early May.
Helicopter-supported diamond drilling will be focused on high-priority unconformity-related uranium targets refined by geophysical work carried out by the company in 2022.
It noted that the ideal unconformity target zones on the project lie within approximately 200-300 metres below surface.
“Our exploration thesis and targeting strategy in eastern Athabasca uranium district had been bolstered by the high-quality geophysical surveys and interpretations we have completed in preparation for this inaugural program,” Sean Hillacre, Standard Uranium president & VP exploration, said in a statement.
“Our technical team and partners at Mamba are excited to begin drilling the robust targets identified on Canary for the first time, exploring for shallow high-grade unconformity-related uranium mineralization.”
Standard Uranium technical director Neil McCallum also expressed his enthusiasm for the kickoff of the inaugural drill program after several years of “methodical” targeting work.
“The northeast portion of the eastern Athabasca Basin remains comparatively underexplored in terms of drilling,” McCallum highlighted.
“Immediately to the south of the project, in the greater well-explored Eastern-Athabasca region, the drilling density is roughly 1.7 drill holes per square-km. The Canary project contains two main conductive corridors, yet only contains three historical drill holes, or a drilling density of 0.04 drill holes per square-km.”