Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. (TSXV: PTU) (“Purepoint” or the “Company”) today provided an update on its drill program at the 100%-owned Red Willow project within the eastern uranium mine district of the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan Canada. The 2021 Red Willow drill program has conducted follow-up testing of the “Geneva Shear” within the Geneva Zone, a target zone where previous operators have identified uranium mineralization associated with a hydrothermally altered, graphitic shear zone that returned up to 0.22% U3O8 over 1.0 metre at a shallow depth of 130 metres.
“The Geneva Zone uranium mineralization, identified by Eldorado Resources in 1984, represents an exceptional starting point to trace a known prospective structure along strike to previously untested areas.” stated Scott Frostad, VP Exploration at Purepoint. “All three 2021 Geneva drill holes successfully intersected the Geneva Shear at various depths with hole GEN21-05 returning an average of 1,420 counts per second over 7.3 metres from our downhole gamma probe.”
The radioactive Geneva Shear is now determined as having a strike of 155 degrees and a dip towards the northwest at -70 degrees. The projection of the shear towards the northeast suggests that previous vertical drillholes completed by Eldorado in 1984, searching for Unconformity-Style mineralization, would not have tested this basement-hosted structure. Towards the southwest, the shear projection remains untested for 1.8 kilometres towards drill hole RAD08-09 while crossing dense swamps and known conductors. Purepoint’s drill hole RAD08-09 was a highlight of the 2008 drill program within the Radon Lake area, returning 283 ppm U over 1.1 metres from sandstone just above the unconformity, and was recommended for follow-up drilling.
Geneva Zone 2021 Drill Results
The 2021 Red Willow program has completed follow-up drilling within the Osprey Zone with three holes collared SW of Eldorado Resources’ 1984 hole RAD-27 that intersected 0.22% U3O8 over 1.0 metres. The RAD-27 intercept was associated with strong hydrothermal alteration and graphitic shearing at a depth of 100 metres below surface. Highly anomalous radon-in-water results, discovered by Gulf Minerals Canada in 1971, are located 1.0 kilometre east-northeast of the 2021 drilling and the source remains unknown.
The three 2021 holes that targeted the Geneva Shear averaged 245 metres in length with a total of 729 metres being completed from the same drill pad. The holes targeted the shear zone at various depths and all successfully intersected the mineralized structure. The Athabasca Sandstone in this area is typically found to be 80 metres thick and the paleoweathering of the basement rocks extends a further 50 metres below the unconformity.
The initial hole, GEN21-03, intersected the Geneva Shear within the zone of paleoweathering, and returned an average of 520 counts per second (cps) over 6.1 metres from the downhole gamma probe starting at a downhole depth of 131.8 metres. The downhole survey returned a maximum of 1,160 cps. Graphite is considered to have been originally present but since destroyed by paleoweathering. The follow-up hole, GEN21-04, intersected the shear much deeper at 278 metres and returned an average of 515 cps over 1.6 metres from the downhole survey. Since the handheld scintillometer indicates that a percentage of the radioactivity is attributed to thorium, an eU3O8 result has not been attempted.
The third hole, GEN21-05, intersected the Geneva shear just below the basement paleoweathering zone starting at a depth of 155 metres. Radioactivity was associated with Pelitic Gneiss that displayed strong hydrothermal alteration, including hematite and local silicification, and was situated near the upper contact of a graphitic/pyritic shear zone. The downhole gamma survey returned an average of 1,420 cps over 7.3 metres with a maximum count of 5,175 cps.
Assay results for the 2021 Geneva Zone drill program will be released once they have been received. Note that the true thickness of the reported intercepts is currently unknown.
Next Steps
The next exploration priority at the Geneva Zone will be to follow the radioactive shear further to the SW. The extensive swamp present in the area dictated where the drill was setup this year and further drilling will need to wait until the winter months.
The drill is currently being moved to the Umfreville project to begin its inaugural drill program. To learn more about the Umfreville Project, view the project tour video at: https://youtu.be/Af6mNL5sQZg.
Red Willow Project
The 100% owned Red Willow property is situated on the eastern edge of the Athabasca Basin in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada and consists of 17 mineral claims having a total area of 40,116 hectares. The property is located close to several uranium deposits including Orano Resources Canada Inc.’s JEB mine, approximately 10 kilometres to the southwest, and Cameco’s Eagle Point mine that is approximately 10 kilometres due south.
Geophysical surveys conducted by Purepoint at Red Willow have included airborne magnetic and electromagnetic (VTEM) surveys, an airborne radiometric survey, ground gradient array IP, pole-dipole array IP, fixed-loop and moving-loop transient electromagnetics, and gravity. The detailed airborne VTEM survey provided magnetic results that are an excellent base on which to interpret structures while the EM results outlined over 70 kilometres of conductors that in most instances represent favourable graphitic lithology.
About Purepoint
Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. (TSXV: PTU) actively operates an exploration pipeline of 12 advanced projects in Canada’s Athabasca Basin, the world’s richest uranium region. Purepoint’s flagship project is the Hook Lake Project, a joint venture with two of the largest uranium suppliers in the world, Cameco Corporation and Orano Canada Inc. The Hook Lake JV Project is on trend with recent high-grade uranium discoveries including Fission Uranium’s Triple R Deposit and NexGen’s Arrow Deposit and encompasses its own Spitfire discovery (53.3% U3O8 over 1.3m including 10m interval of 10.3% U3O8). Together with its flagship project, the Company’s projects stretch across approximately 185,000 hectares of claims throughout the Athabasca Basin. These claims host over 20 distinct and well-defined drill target areas with advanced geophysical surveys completed, and in some cases, have had first pass drilling performed.
Source: Purepoint Uranium
