IsoEnergy has officially announced the completion of its expanded summer exploration program at the Larocque East Project, which happens to be located in the eastern Athabasca Basin.
According to certain reports, the stated program saw IsoEnergy completing 30 diamond drill holes, totaling 13,015m, a number which exceeds the originally budgeted 9,825m. This the company did along the Larocque Trend, an important regional structure that hosts the world-class Hurricane Deposit and other notable high-grade occurrences including those on Cameco/Orano’s Dawn Lake joint venture.
Taking a deeper view of the program in question, it conducted extensive drilling operations to eventually confirm prospectivity for greater mineralization at the Project, achieving the same through identification of the two new high priority zones (Areas D and E) and immediately adjacent to Hurricane.
Next up, we ought to mention how first pass drilling in Areas D and E went on to showcase elevated radioactivity associated with significant alteration, all leading upto enhanced prospectivity of the Project’s eastern extent. In fact, across the Area E, a 1km by 2km ANT anomaly located 8km east of Hurricane, five holes were drilled highlighted by hole LE24-192 which intersected 2.0m at 495 parts per million uranium partial and 3,410 counts per second. This included 0.5m at 1,110 ppm U-p and 7,483 cps.
As for the Area D, a 2.5km by 1km ANT anomaly located 8 km east of Hurricane, it had five holes drilled highlighted by hole LE24-174, which intersected 3.5m, from 254m, at 26.2 ppm U-p and 257 cps and 0.2m at 1,303 cps.
Markedly enough, these results are comparable to pre-discovery holes drilled by Cameco just 40 meters from the high-grade Hurricane Deposit, KER-11, which returned 0.5m at 518.0 ppm U-p and KER-12, and therefore, signaled strong proximal potential within the geochemical halos of the known deposits, where sharply defined uranium mineralization boundaries are evident.
“Our summer drill results at Larocque East are highly encouraging. The structural disruption, bleaching, desilicification and clay alteration intersected within and adjacent to the ANT velocity anomalies are all hallmarks of Athabasca uranium deposits. The significantly anomalous radioactivity and sandstone uranium geochemistry are indicative of the fertility of these alteration zones; and several kilometers of strike length along graphitic-pyritic conductor corridors east of the Hurricane Deposit provide ample exploration space for potential additional discoveries along the Hurricane trend,” said Dr. Dan Brisbin, Vice President of Exploration at IsoEnergy.
We referred to how drilling in Areas D and E returned elevated radioactivity associated with significant alteration, but what we haven’t mentioned yet is how the same can be said about drilling done in Hurricane East within 600 meters of Hurricane. A single hole drilled 290m east of Hurricane, LE24-188, intersected 2.1m at 1,847 cps, indicating a potential for near resource expansion.
Across the Area B, which happens to be 250m by 180m ANT target anomaly centered 500m east of Hurricane, a total of seven holes were drilled, with Hole LE24-165 intersecting 6.0 m at 1,359 cps, covering a higher-grade interval of 0.5m at 3,067 cps.
Among other things, we must mention that, while only 33% of the geochemical results have been received till date, initial results are highly encouraging, as they include strong hydrothermal alteration and elevated geochemical signatures, key indicators typically associated with uranium mineralization. We must also mention that follow up drilling is set to commence in January 2025, an exercise which will focus on high-priority areas including D, E and Hurricane East, as well as more first pass drilling in other untested ANT anomalies.
Talk about the Larocque Trend, it is a northeast-trending regional structural feature that extends over 160 kilometers, hosting numerous anomalous uranium occurrences. Despite there being many deposits, though, the site’s most valuable component is understood to be the Hurricane Deposit, a discovery which has significantly enhanced the prospectivity of the entire trend to reveal potential for more high-grade uranium discoveries.
