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Introduction
The Lazy Edward Bay property is located along the southern margin of the Athabasca Basin, approximately 75 kilometres west-northwest of the Key Lake uranium mine. The property also covers the southern shore of Cree Lake and consists of 10 mineral claims, comprising 39,305 hectares.
Denison Mines Corp. (Dension; formerly International Uranium Corporation) has earned a 75% interest in the project. The property is subject to an underlying 2.5% net smelter return royalty (NSR) held by Kennecott Canada, reducible to 1.25% by payment of C$1,000,000 to Kennecott. JNR is the operator.
Since March of 2008, the Company has been funding all exploration activities on a 100% basis. As a result, the Company's participating Interest in the Lazy Edward Bay project is currently 46%.
Previous Work
The Lazy Edward Bay property was first explored in 1969 and on a sporadic basis until 1989. The operators at that time recognized the merits of further work, but pulled out due to budget restraints and their current focus on the eastern Athabasca Basin. Past programs included an assortment of prospecting, geophysical and geochemical surveys, as well as diamond drilling. Several major conductive trends were outlined, some of which are untested and others poorly tested. A number of broadly spaced drill holes that reported encouraging geology and/or geochemical results were never followed up, and a uraniferous boulder anomaly, the source of which is interpreted by previous workers to exist on the property, remains unexplained. This is of particular interest in that the Key Lake deposits were discovered by following up boulder anomalies.
No further work was undertaken until JNR and its partner at the time, Kennecott Canada, acquired the property in 1999. A 1000-line kilometre airborne GEOTEM survey was flown over the property in November 2000. In 2001, an exploration program consisting of grid establishment, ground geophysical surveys and diamond drilling focused on a number of prospective targets identified from historic work and the GEOTEM survey.
A total of 8 holes were drilled during the 2001 winter program. The best geochemical results were obtained over a 2-km strike length of the Horse Conductor, where positive geological features had been noted in six holes (LE-01, -03, -04, -06, -07 & -8). Previous operators had identified elevated radioactivity and prospective geochemistry in this area. Elevated to anomalous levels of pathfinder elements such as nickel, lead, copper, vanadium, cobalt and boron occur in the basement rocks of these holes.
Of special note are highly anomalous zinc values (up to 0.62%) in drill hole LE-01. The clay geochemistry along the Horse Conductor is typically mixed kaolinite/illite, a signature commonly associated with uranium mineralization in the Key Lake area. These geological and geochemical features are considered favourable for the development of uranium mineralization along the Horse Conductor.
2008-09 Exploration Program
The 2008-09 winter exploration program consisted of diamond drilling and ground geophysics. Contractor delays resulted in only half of the planned metreage being completed. Eight holes comprising 1,538 metres were drilled, with one hole being lost in structurally disrupted and faulted sandstone. The drill program was successful in that it returned anomalous pathfinder elements in several holes as well as significant structural features such as brittle fracturing and/or ductile shearing.
The geophysical program consisted of just under 60-kilometres of linecutting and ground electromagnetic (EM) and magnetometer surveys in the southwestern portion of the property. Well defined drill targets were identified on three of the four grids surveyed.
2010 Exploration Program
A 6,188 line-kilometre airborne gradient magnetic survey was flown over the entire Lazy Edward Bay property in January 2010. This was the first unified magnetic survey flown over the property to date. Geophysically and geologically, the area is extremely complex. The newly acquired data has greatly enhanced previous smaller surveys that were flown over the past several years. Thirteen zones of interest, characterized by prospective magnetic settings and anomalies, have been identified. In addition to several new targets, the integration of these results with earlier ground and airborne geophysical surveys has further defined and upgraded existing targets for drill testing.
2011 Exploration Program
JNR recently completed a 1,418 line-km airborne, full tensor, 3D gravity gradient survey over the property, the results of which have been integrated with prior drilling results and previous ground and airborne geophysical programs to further define drill targets.
Preliminary results indicate that this survey was successful in better defining the structural setting of the property. Several 'zones of interest' outlined within the Lazy Edward Bay claims lie along extensive corridors of well-defined, structurally-disrupted basement conductors over two to six km in strike length. The property is now at a drill-ready stage with numerous high-priority targets identified. Although the property has been drill-tested historically, many high-priority targets remain. These better defined targets will be the focus of future drilling programs.
Quality Assurance / Quality Control
JNR's Vice-President Exploration and Chief Operating Officer, David L. Billard, PGeo, is the Qualified Person for the Company's Athabasca Basin uranium projects. All technical information for the projects is obtained and reported under a formal quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) program, details of which are presented in the PDF link below.
 Quality Assurance & Quality Control Program
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