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Introduction
The 44,352 hectare South Fork property is located in the eastern end of the Cypress Hills area of southwestern Saskatchewan. Titan Uranium Incorporated (TUE-TSX-V) (previously Uranium Power Corp) and Mega Uranium Ltd. (MGA-TSX) have earned a 50% interest in the project by reimbursing JNR for prior expenditures and carrying out over $1,500,000 in exploration. Titan and Mega can increase their interest to 65% by spending an additional $1,000,000 on exploration activities by January 25, 2011. Titan is the project operator.
Regional Geology
The project area is underlain by Upper Cretaceous to Oligocene non-marine fluvial clastics of the Eastend, Whitemud, Frenchman, Ravenscrag and Cypress Hills Formations. Of these, the Frenchman, Ravenscrag and Cypress Hills Formations are the most important in terms of uranium source, transport, and deposition. These sediments were deposited on the northwest margin of the Williston Basin as a series of migrating channel point bar sands with interchannel fine sediment (Frenchman), succeeded by finer grained channel sands with interchannel lignite alluvial plain (Ravenscrag), and unconformably overlain by a coarse conglomerate sequence (Cypress Hills).
This geological setting is analogous to that found in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, currently the largest centre of uranium production in the United States.
Previous Work
In the late 1970's, the Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation (SMDC, later to become Cameco) identified the area as having favorable uranium exploration potential. SMDC carried out regional-scale prospecting, geochemical and ground water surveys and rotary diamond drilling. Over 150 holes were drilled in the years 1978 to 1982. Due to the decline in the price of uranium in the early 1980's, SMDC allowed the properties to lapse.
Exploration Target
Economic interest in the area is based on the potential for:
- Wyoming type sandstone hosted uranium deposits in the Frenchman and Ravenscrag Formations.
- Uraniferous lignite deposits in the Upper Ravenscrag Formation.
Groundwater samples taken during the regional reconnaissance survey indicated a high background level of uranium in the Frenchman sand aquifers, averaging 8.9 ppb and having a maximum of 96 ppb. A radon soil gas survey was conducted over part of the area, from which numerous anomalies ranging from one to five times background were detected overlying sand channel systems.
The rotary drilling identified a series of NE-SW trending, elongate and overlapping zones of oxidation encompassing a 50 km long by 5 to 12 km wide belt within the Ravenscrag and Frenchman Formations. These oxidized zones, where they meet reduced strata within these Formations, are considered to have potential to host Wyoming type "roll front" uranium deposits.
In the fall of 2007, UPC contracted Fugro Airborne Surveys to complete a 3,300 line-kilometre airborne electromagnetic and magnetometer survey over the property using the TEMPEST system.
In February 2008, an additional 15 claims totaling 14,528 ha were staked to cover targets identified by the airborne survey.
2008 Exploration Program
Project operator, Titan, completed a 45 rotary drill hole program in spring-summer 2008 totaling 5,402 metres. The drilling program focused on the largest paleochannel in the Frenchman and Ravenscrag Formations, as interpreted from the Fugro Tempest airborne EM survey.
Four of the drill holes intersected significant uranium mineralization in sandstones of the Ravenscrag formation. The best intersection was obtained in SF-1042 at 66.8 metres vertical depth, returning an average grade of 0.028% eU3O8 over 1.4 metres, including 0.038% eU3O8 over 0.7 metres (Table 1). Additional mineralized intersections ranged from 1.4 metres grading 0.014% eU3O8 to 0.7 metres grading 0.025% eU3O8.
Of the remaining 41 drill holes, nine intersected anomalous radioactivity (greater than 2x background), 14 are considered to be weakly anomalous (2x background) and the remaining 18 were barren.
Table 1. 2008 Rotary Drilling Results
| Hole # |
From (m) |
To (m) |
Length (m) |
% eU3O8 |
| SF-1039 |
40.8 |
41.1 |
0.3 |
0.023 |
| SF-1040 |
31.2 |
31.9 |
0.7 |
0.025 |
| |
72.1 |
73.5 |
1.4 |
0.014 |
| SF-1041 |
38.0 |
38.8 |
0.8 |
0.024 |
| |
43.9 |
44.6 |
0.7 |
0.022 |
| SF-1042 |
66.8 |
68.0 |
1.2 |
0.028 |
| including |
|
|
0.7 |
0.038 |
All holes were drilled at -90º dip. Lengths presented in Table 1 represent down hole measurements and are estimated to approximate true width. Grades are reported as equivalent uranium (eU3O8) as determined by downhole radiometric logging equipment. Contract logging services were provided by Century Wireline Services of Penhold, AB.
JNR's Vice-President Exploration and Chief Operating Officer, David L. Billard, PGeo, is the Qualified Person for the South Fork Property.
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