Marmota Energy (ASX: MEU) has unearthed high uranium grades of up to 8,143 parts per million at the Saffron deposit within its Junction Dam project in South Australia.
The assay grades are comparable to uranium grades discovered at the 1.2 million tonne Honeymoon in-situ leaching uranium mine, just 10 kilometres to the west of Junction Dam, which began full scale production in November 2011 with expected annual production of 880,000 pounds uranium per year.
Both projects are contained within the same highly prospective Yarramba Palaeochannel.
The assayed grades are also near the horizon for those driving production at the Beverley mine further to the northwest of Honeymoon and Junction Dam.
The company has identified significant expansion potential within Saffron and at two other prospects immediately adjacent and has increased its exploration target to 15-20 million tonnes at 0.03-0.05% uranium.
Saffron, which is one of four prospects at Junction Dam, has an initial Inferred Resource of 4.36 million tonnes for 1,510 tonnes of contained uranium.
Marmota’s Phase 3 drilling campaign conducted during 2011 defined a zone of uranium mineralisation extending for about 15 kilometres, encompassing the Yolanda, Saffron and Bridget deposits.
Further work is now underway to define areas for drill testing in 2012, including resource expansion on the Yolanda prospect immediately adjoining the Saffron deposit to the south.
High resolution ground electromagnetic surveys recently completed at the Yolanda prospect displayed a strong contrast between potential mineralised palaeochannel sediments and the surrounding rocks, which was also previously demonstrated at Saffron and Bridget.
Marmota will use the data to define new drill targets for 2012.