Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. (the “Company” or “Purepoint”) (TSXV: PTU) announced today that it is preparing to commence an initial program at the Smart Lake JV, a project owned jointly by Cameco Corp. (73%) and Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. (27%). The Smart Lake property is situated in the southwestern portion of the Athabasca Basin, approximately 18 km west-northwest of the Patterson Uranium District and 60 km south of the former Cluff Lake mine.
“Immediately following our initial successful drill program at Smart Lake, our attention was redirected by the discoveries occurring at Hook Lake and the Patterson Lake corridor,” said Scott Frostad, Purepoint’s VP Exploration. “With a new understanding of the western Athabasca geological setting acquired from our advanced work at Hook Lake, we believe that it is time to revisit our findings at Smart Lake”.
Highlights:
- A team of both Cameco and Purepoint staff have mobilized to the Smart Lake camp where they will undertake to re-examine and re-log the core from the original drill campaigns;
- Earlier work performed by Purepoint includes a ground electromagnetic survey, a soil geochemical survey and 2,539 metres of diamond drilling in ten diamond holes;
- Initial drilling has intersected basement-hosted uranium mineralization associated with a hydrothermally altered, graphitic shear zone that includes 13.3 metres of 127 ppm U only 200 metres from surface;
- The results of all work performed to date is outlined in a National Instruments 43-101 compliant technical report available on Purepoint’s web site at: https://purepoint.ca/projects/smart-lake/; and
- Following the re-examination of the drill core, an exploration program for Smart Lake will be prepared for presentation to the joint venture partners.
“Our investors are anxious to see us expand our exploration efforts across our broad uranium portfolio,” said Chris Frostad, President & CEO at Purepoint. “We are reviewing the priorities of our entire project set with an eye to begin a more aggressive stage of advancement”.
The Smart Lake Uranium Project
Purepoint, as operator, holds a 27% ownership of the Smart Lake project in joint venture with Cameco Corporation.
The Smart Lake property includes two claims with a total area of 9,860 hectares situated in the southwestern portion of the Athabasca Basin, approximately 60 km south of the former Cluff Lake mine and 18 km west-northwest of Purepoint’s Hook Lake JV Project.
Depth to the unconformity, where it occurs, is relatively shallow at less than 350 metres.
Aeromagnetic and electromagnetic patterns at Smart Lake reflect an extension of the patterns underlying the Shea Creek deposits (max. grade of 58.3% U3O8 over 3.5 m) 55 km north of the property. Exploration by Purepoint and Cameco has firmly established the presence of uranium mineralization, hydrothermal alteration and the location of a number of basement electromagnetic conductors never drill tested.
The best uranium intercepts for each hole of the 2008 and 2012 drill programs are provided below. Note that holes SMT08-03 and 04 were drilled along strike over 4 km south of the other drill holes and their results suggest background uranium concentrations in basement rocks are typically less than 4 ppm.
| Hole ID | Hole Depth | Maximum Radiation | ||||
| Max. CPS | U (ppm) | Interval (m) | From (m) | To (m) | ||
| SMT08-01 | 300.0 | 3809 | 449 | 0.2 | 234.7 | 234.9 |
| SMT08-02 | 192.0 | 534 | 27 | 1.0 | 191.0 | 192.0 |
| SMT08-03 | 213.0 | 1579 | 4 | 0.3 | 94.0 | 94.3 |
| SMT08-04 | 254.4 | 881 | 1 | 0.4 | 158.2 | 158.6 |
| SMT08-05 | 219.0 | 13534 | 1900 | 0.2 | 152.8 | 153.0 |
| SMT08-06 | 258.0 | 5047 | 1600 | 0.1 | 156.2 | 156.3 |
| SMT12-07 | 369.0 | 1926 | 456 | 0.3 | 146.7 | 147.0 |
| SMT12-08 | 306.0 | 1006 | 155 | 0.3 | 208.8 | 209.1 |
| SMT12-09 | 292.6 | 2036 | 106 | 1.0 | 237.1 | 238.1 |
Known uranium mineralization at the Smart Lake project is associated with a steeply dipping, north-northwest striking, and hydrothermally altered, graphitic-shear zone. The strongest radioactivity returned from the conductor is 127 ppm U over 13.3 metres in hole SMT08-05. A geochemical signature is associated with the uranium mineralization and includes the enrichment of nickel, arsenic, and cobalt. A flat-lying, radioactive tensional fracture zone extends westward from the graphitic shear and returned 1,600 ppm U (0.2% U3O8) over 0.1 metre.
Figure 1: Location Map of Purepoint’s Western Athabasca Projects
About Purepoint
Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. (TSXV: PTU) is focused on the precision exploration of its ten projects in the Canadian Athabasca Basin, the world’s richest uranium region. Established in the Athabasca Basin well before the initial resurgence in uranium earlier last decade, Purepoint’s flagship project is the Hook Lake Project, a joint venture with two of the largest uranium producers in the world, Cameco Corporation and Orano Canada Inc. The Hook Lake JV is on trend with recent high-grade uranium discoveries including Fission Uranium’s Triple R Deposit, NexGen’s Arrow Deposit and Purepoint’s Spitfire discovery.
Scott Frostad BSc, MASc, PGeo, Purepoint’s Vice President, Exploration, is the Qualified Person responsible for technical content of this release.
Source: Purepoint Uranium Group Inc