GoviEx Uranium Inc (TSX-V:GXU, OTCQX:GVXXF) has announced positive results from the 2022 drilling program at its wholly-owned polymetallic copper-silver-uranium Falea Project in western Mali.
The Falea Project contains 31 million pounds (Mlb) of uranium U308 (ASX:UTO), and average copper and silver grades of 0.2% and 42 grams per ton (g/t) respectively, the company said.
The Falea Project includes three exploration licenses, namely Falea, Bala and Madini, with current mineral resources being solely within the Falea license, and it is positioned on strike with two major gold trends.
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“We are extremely excited with the results from our 2022 drilling program at our Falea Project, which continues to show promising potential,” Govind Friedland, the company's executive chairman, said in a statement.
“The IP data, analyzed by Computational Geosciences - the global leader in geophysical data interpretation, shows targets with a strong correlation with known uranium mineralization, which means we now have a clear roadmap of targets for our next drilling program. Falea is clearly a compelling and highly prospective asset and we look forward to expanding our exploration program, particularly now that we can focus our efforts in the most prospective areas," he added.
During the first two quarters of 2022, the company undertook a diamond drilling program totalling 6,002 meters of NQ sized diamond core over 12 drill holes. A total of 10 drill holes, totalling 5,201 meters were completed on the Falea licence and 2 drill holes for 800 meters on the Bala licence.
The drill program was designed to target mineralisation in the Birimian rocks below the sedimentary mineralisation based on Induced Polarisation (IP) targets, and evidence from historical drill cores already reported copper and gold mineralisation.
Highlights from the drilling program include:
- Potential to expand uranium mineralisation
- Copper mineralisation expands beyond uranium mineralisation into higher sediments structures
- IP defines structures that drive uranium-copper mineralisation providing a better targeting tool
- Gold mineralisation in the Birimian but limited zone next to the Road Fault
Within the Falea license three separate structural targets, were defined:
- Zone 1 (DF923 - DF926) targeted the Road Fault in the Falea North
- Zone 2 (DF927 - DF930) targeted the North West trend
- Zone 3 (DF931 - DF932) focused on Road Fault between Falea North and Central
The results from Zone 1 intersected the Road Fault and highlighted the faulting and repetition of the geology in the area and they show:
- The potential gold mineralisation along and close to the Road Fault, with a number of interesting assay results including 1.62 meters at 3.30 g/t, 1 meter at 2.32 meters at 2.32 g/t and 2 meters at 1.08 g/t
- Uranium results confirmed mineralisation in the Upper North and North Deep deposits
- Strong correlation between copper and uranium mineralisation within the sedimentary sequence. Historical and hence current practices have only started sampling from just above the Kania Sandstone (KS) formation which hosts most of the uranium mineralisation. The potential for copper in the overlying ASK and underlying VC formations needs to be considered in future work, and this may expand the thickness of the mineralised zone.
The company said the results from Zones 2 and 3 are interesting from the perspective of future uranium exploration on the Falea licence, although they did not intersect any major mineralization in the Birimian. These results show that the gradient IP can be useful for mapping the major structures that support uranium and copper mineralisation. There is a strong correlation of copper mineralisation with high IP response, and consequently with uranium, as copper and uranium tend to occur together over most of the Falea deposit. Several target zones have been identified based on this relationship, which will be taken into consideration for the company's next drilling campaign.
In Zone 3, the drilling results and the gradient IP clearly show that the Road Faults positioning has historically been misinterpreted and that it should be expected to be positioned between the recent drill holes DF-931 and DF-932, with the later drill hole reporting 2 meters at 7,260 parts per million (ppm) copper and 42 g/t silver. As a result of this finding, the exploration potential of this area will be re-assessed, with the potential to connect the Falea North and Central deposits.
The two drill holes completed over the Bala licence were drilled along the IP section, and the drill holes were orientated westward targeting expected structures that were assumed to be in a similar orientation to the Road Fault. The results from Zone 2 and 3 indicate that future Bala exploration should consist of expanding the IP survey area and target future drilling onto the IP highs.
GoviEx is a mineral resource company focused on the exploration and development of uranium properties in Africa. GoviEx's principal objective is to become a significant uranium producer through the continued exploration and development of its flagship mine-permitted Madaouela Project in Niger, its mine-permitted Mutanga Project in Zambia, and its multi-element Falea Project in Mali.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com