Standard Uranium Ltd (TSX-V:STND, OTCQB:STTDF) said on Tuesday it has kicked off its 2025 exploration program at the Corvo uranium project in Saskatchewan, targeting high-grade surface uranium showings ahead of a planned maiden drill campaign in early 2026.
The exploration activities mark the first on-the-ground program at Corvo, which is being advanced under a three-year earn-in option agreement with Aventis Energy.
Field crews mobilized to the site on July 4 to begin detailed mapping, prospecting, and sampling of historically identified uranium-rich outcrops, the company said.
Initial focus is on validating historical showings such as the Manhattan zone—where previous samples returned grades ranging from 1.19% to 5.98% U₃O₈—and the SMDI 2052 occurrence, which reported 0.137% U₃O₈ and 2,300 ppm thorium.
“Getting boots on the ground at Corvo for the first time has been exceptional so far,” said Sean Hillacre, president and vice president exploration.
“Confirming the multiple historical uranium showings on the project and taking new samples will allow us to confirm uranium grades and build a comprehensive understanding of the geology across Corvo prior to our maiden drill program.”
The company is also integrating data from a recently completed 1,380-line-kilometer helicopter-borne TDEM and magnetic survey conducted earlier this year. The data is undergoing inversion and modeling to refine targets for drilling.
Additional ground-based geophysical surveys are planned for later this year, including a high-resolution gravity survey aimed at identifying alteration halos linked to basement-hosted uranium systems.
Standard Uranium said it expects to release geochemical results from surface sampling later this year and include them in a maiden NI 43-101 technical report on Corvo. The company believes the project is prospective for shallow, high-grade mineralization similar to deposits found outside the Athabasca Basin margin, such as Rabbit Lake and the Gemini Zone.
Corvo is located just outside the southeastern edge of the Athabasca Basin and hosts shallow targets beneath minimal glacial cover, the company noted. Notably, the historically sampled Manhattan Showing, which returned up to 59,800 ppm uranium at surface, has never been drill tested.