Canalaska Uranium Ltd (CVE:CVV) said its partner Cameco Corporation (TSE:CCO) has enjoyed success with its first drill hole at the West McArthur project.
The first hole, WMA035, of a one-year programme, successfully intersected the C10 south structure with strong sandstone alteration in what Canalaska said appears to be the hanging wall of the targeted conductor.
The mineral exploration company said the drilling crews will move back onto the project early next month, and that drilling is scheduled to start by mid-June, with the joint venture partners targeting around 3,000 metres of drilling.
Cameco has the option to earn up to a 60% interest in the project by financing up to $12.5mln of the exploration work.
Canalaska said three significant south-southeast-dipping fault zones were intersected in the sandstone of the C10 South structure. These faults are characterized by broken core, quartz dissolution, clay healed breccias, core loss, and localised sandy-clay gouge.
A broad boron anomaly from unconformity to 375 metres above is evident in the sandstone column, associated with dravite (also known as brown tourmaline) and again in the main fault, Canalaska said.
The drill hole intersected elevated uranium in the sandstone, with, locally, uranium (2.74 parts per million, or ppm), molybdenum (3.1 ppm), copper (9.36 ppm), arsenic (2.21 ppm), and 2,500 ppm boron. The drill hole appears to have overshot the target zone, the company added.
“We are very pleased with the structural interpretation and alteration mineralogy in this first hole,” said Peter Dasler, president of Canalaska.
“We now have evidence of a very large mineral system extending from hole WMA028 to WMA035, a distance of 3.5 kilometres. We are eagerly awaiting the restart of drilling programme scheduled for early June, and feel very confident that Cameco's staff will be able to test the structures," he added.
Shares in Canalaska Uranium rose 3.5% to C$0.59 on the news in early trading.