Valor Resources Ltd (ASX:VAL) shares are up 50% after returning several high-grade uranium, silver, lead and rare earth results from a field program at the Hook Lake Project in central Canada’s Athabasca Basin.
Sampling results included an outcrop of uranium mineralisation grading up to 59% triuranium oxide (U3O8), as well as rare earth materials with grades more than 5% total rare earth oxides (TREO).
The field program was part of a review across the entire Hook Lake Project, examining its rare earth and molybdenum potential.
Sampling results from the Hook Lake Zone S prospect included:
- 59.2% U3O8, 499 g/t silver, 5.05% TREO and 14.4% lead (float) with the TREO including 11,797ppm Nd2O3 + Pr6O11 and 1,825ppm Dy2O3;
- 57.4% U3O8, 507 g/t silver, 3.68% TREO and 14.5% lead (rock chip) with TREO including 8,562ppm Nd2O3 + Pr6O11 and 1,676ppm Dy2O3;
- 46.1% U3O8, 435 g/t silver, 2.88% TREO and 8.8% lead (rock chip) with TREO including 7,054ppm Nd2O3 + Pr6O11 and 1,139ppm Dy2O3;
- 6.92% U3O8, 0.81% TREO and 2% lead (rock chip); and
- 6.42% U3O8, 1.17% TREO and 1.8% Pb (rock chip).
Hook Lake potential
Valor chairman George Bauk said the results highlighted the “enormous” potential of Hook Lake.
“There is a lot going on at the Hook Lake prospect,” he said. “The results are highlighted by the assays from Hook Lake (or Zone S) prospect which confirmed the reported historical high-grade uranium mineralisation.
“Results also included a number of significant results on top of the uranium and rare earth assays, such as lead as high as 14.5% and silver over 500 g/t.
“The occurrence of rare earths is not unexpected in the Athabascan Basin, we just were not expecting grades this high and with the distribution of key rare earth elements such as neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium.
“We have seen results of over 1% TREO at both the Hook Lake prospect and the Nob Hill prospect which are over 10 kilometres apart on the property.
“To the northwest of Hook Lake at the West Way prospect, U3O8 values of up to 0.64% along with other samples in the area containing significant values of molybdenum including 3.4% and 1.9%.”
Investors have also recognised the results with shares up 50% to A$0.012 on volume of more than 155 million.
Sampling details
A total of 57 samples were taken from across the Hook Lake Project, with seven rock chip samples taken from a historical trench located at the Hook Lake prospect, and four of those samples returning high-grade uranium assays (>6% U3O8) as well as highly elevated rare earth (>0.5% TREO), silver (>50ppm) and lead (>1.8%) assays.
Samples are selective in nature with a high potential for bias and should not be considered as being representative of the overall mineralised structure or zone.
The fieldwork was also designed to follow up on the new targets generated from the magnetic/VLF-EM survey completed in April and the priority anomalies identified from the detailed airborne radiometric survey completed in July.
Next steps
A follow up field program is planned to finalise and prioritise targets ready for drill testing, which is expected to take place during the 2021-22 North American winter.
Bauk said the company’s excitement at Hook Lake lined up with increasing commodity prices, with molybdenum, in particular, up nearly 100% since January.
“The task at this project is to review all the current and historical data and put together a drill program to follow up these exciting results. This is one hell of an exciting project, right commodity, right location and right time.”
- Daniel Paproth