ATHA Energy Corp (CSE:SASK, OTCQB:SASKF) said its 2024 exploration program at the Angilak project has successfully expanded the uranium mineralization footprint with a 100% hit rate.
The company updated on the progress of its 2024 exploration program at the Nunavut project, with the first six drill holes successfully expanding the footprint of uranium mineralization outside the historic Lac 50 Uranium Deposit.
Lac 50 is one of the largest high-grade uranium deposits outside of the Athabasca Basin. The deposit has a historical mineral resource estimate of 43.3 million pounds at an average grade of 0.69% U3O8.
A nearly 10,000-meter diamond drilling program to expand uranium mineralization along the Lac 50 Trend started in June 2024.
All six holes expanded the footprint of uranium mineralization at the Main Zone, Eastern Extension, and the J4 & Ray Zones, ATHA said. Shallow, high-grade intersections were found in newly defined Tuff Horizons, supporting the theory that the Lac 50 Trend hosts a stacked lens system similar to basement-hosted uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin.
Drilling in the Main Zone intersected uranium mineralization 80 meters along strike to the west of the Main Zone, with intermittent radioactivity from around 75 meters to 84.5 meters depth, averaging 1,685 counts per second (CPS) over 9.5 meters.
Another hole in the J4 Zone intersected mineralization down-dip from Tuff J4R_001, with a peak of 70,823 CPS over 0.1 meters at a depth of 111.5 meters to 113 meters.
Troy Boisjoli, CEO of ATHA Energy, told shareholders that the 100% hit rate is “extremely encouraging” for the project.
“These results confirm our thesis that Nunavut has exploration potential analogous to the Athabasca Basin,” Boisjoli said.
Phase II of the program is scheduled to begin in August 2024 and will include targeted airborne geophysics and ground geochemistry sampling.