 |
Introduction
The Way Lake property is located 55 kilometres east of the Key Lake Mine and 35 kilometres southeast of the Moore Lake joint venture property. It consists of 19 contiguous claims totalling 80,925 hectares. JNR Resources holds an unencumbered 100% interest in the property.
JNR began staking ground in the area in May 2004, after a review of assessment files indicated that high-grade uranium values from grab samples in 1978 coincided with an area of highly anomalous uranium values in glacial debris, swamps and muskegs.
Geologically, the claims are underlain by a steeply dipping and northeast trending, highly folded sequence of intercalated Aphebian-aged Wollaston Group sediments that conformably overly and flank an Archean gneiss dome.
Previous Work
High-grade uranium mineralization was discovered by Agip Canada Ltd. in 1978, while carrying out a program of airborne EM and magnetic surveys, diamond drilling, regional prospecting, mapping, and lake water and sediment sampling. Exploration continued for the next four to five years but was unsuccessful in explaining the anomalous radioactivity and/or extending the mineralized zone. The last recorded work on this ground was in the early 80's.
JNR completed a prospecting and mapping program on the Way Lake claims and surrounding ground during the 2006 summer field season. High-grade uranium mineralization was obtained from outcrop sampling of a previously identified massive pitchblende vein, now referred to as the Hook Lake showing. Two grab samples collected from the vein returned 40.1 % and 48% U3O8. The uranium mineralization is also associated with significant lead (up to 8.8%), rare earth element and thorium enrichment, and anomalous boron, cobalt and vanadium values.
A 4,500 line-kilometre helicopter-borne VTEM survey flown in fall 2006 identified some 50 kilometres of arcuate and structurally displaced conductors in the southwest portion of the property. This, along with the positive results from the summer program, prompted the staking of an additional 58,000 hectares.
The Hook Lake showing occupies a 1.0-metre wide by minimum 10-metre long dilational jog within a south-southwest trending ductile-brittle shear zone hosted by felsic to mafic intrusive rocks. The shear zone occurs along the edge of an extensive muskeg and likely acted as the conduit for the mineralization. The basement hosted-mineralization at Hook Lake has similarities to other uranium deposits such as Eagle Point. Both are structurally controlled, vein-type, high grade and likely part of the 'feeder system' to more typical unconformity deposits.
2007-2009 Exploration
JNR's 2007 program at Way Lake represented the first significant exploration carried out on the project lands in over 25 years. It consisted of the completion of 14 diamond drill holes totalling 2,467-metres, accompanied by 125 kilometres of Horizontal Loop EM and ground magnetics, as well as a detailed 700 line-kilometre airborne VTEM survey over the Hook Lake showing and previously un-surveyed claims in the southeastern portion of the property. In addition, a major prospecting campaign carried out over the entire Way Lake project area resulted in the discovery of three new zones of anomalous radioactivity in outcrop (West Way, Nob Hill, and EWA). An orientation bulk till sampling survey was also completed.
The diamond drilling program met with mixed results. Initially, some thirty holes were planned for the Hook Lake area, but contractor delays resulted in lower than budgeted production levels and prevented a thorough evaluation of the area. Although no high-grade uranium mineralization was intersected, all fourteen holes intersected significant structural features composed of brittle fracturing and/or ductile-brittle shearing with significant levels of radioactivity and anomalous pathfinder geochemistry in several. Details of the 2007 drill results are presented in the Company's March 19, 2008 news release.
The newly discovered West Way occurrence is located approximately 6.5 kilometres due north of the Hook Lake area. Anomalous radioactivity (10 to 400 times background) was identified at the north end of a 1.0-kilometre long ridge of discontinuous outcrops. The uranium mineralization is vein type and associated with a northeast-trending shear zone accompanied by molybdenite-bearing calc-silicate alteration. Two drill holes (WYL-07-13 and -14) tested the down dip extent of the mineralized shear zone at shallow depths and confirmed the presence of a well defined structure.
At Nob Hill, 14 kilometres to the southwest of the Hook Lake area, prospecting this summer discovered a north-northeast trending granitic pegmatite cut by cross cutting fractures with zones of elevated radioactivity ranging from 10 to 500 times background. The mineralization is vein-type and occurs within dilational zones similar to those that host the uranium mineralization at the Eagle Point uranium mine and at the Beaverlodge and Karpinka Lake deposits.
The EWA zone is located approximately 19 kilometres southwest of Nob Hill, proximal to a northeast trending conductive zone identified by the airborne VTEM survey. The uranium mineralization occurs within a 10- to 20-metre wide, northeast trending sheared pelitic unit accompanied by granitic inliers and has been traced over a minimum strike length of 85 metres. Outcrop samples from this occurrence returned anomalous radioactivity ranging from 10 to 300 times background.
In 2008, the Company followed up with prospecting an a 48-hole (11,985-metre) drill program that tested a variety of targets including the previously discovered EWA, West Way, Nob Hill, and Hook Lake showings, the Walker Lake conductive trend and a broad zone of newly discovered surface mineralization in the Fraser Lakes area.
The Fraser Lakes uranium showings (Fraser Lakes A and B zones) were identified by ground prospecting of airborne geophysical targets in the southern half of the Way Lake property, some five kilometres east of the Walker Lake conductive trend. The mineralized zones are contained within a 5-kilometre-long interval of a folded electromagnetic (EM) conductor system with a total length of 65 kilometres and comprised of Wollaston Group graphitic pelitic gneisses and uraniferous granitic pegmatites. The B zone showings occur along the northern extent of this folded conductor and are currently the more prospective of the two mineralized zones. Nearly 70 individual mineralized outcrop sites were identified over a 500-metre-wide by 1.5-kilometre-long area. Over 70% of the grab samples taken from these sites assayed from 0.03 to 0.457% U3O8.
The 2008 program was successful in outlining the presence of previously unrecognized uranium mineralization over a very large area. Anomalous uranium and/or thorium mineralization accompanied by rare-earth element enrichment and anomalous levels of pathfinder elements were intersected in a number of holes, as well as broad zones of significantly altered and structurally disrupted graphitic pelitic gneisses accompanied by anomalous levels of pathfinder elements including copper, nickel, cobalt, zinc, vanadium, bismuth, boron, and molybdenum. Detailed results of the 2008 prospecting and drilling program are presented in the Company's November 14, 2008 and February 27, 2009 news releases.
In 2009, 19 holes totalling 2,699 metres were drilled along a 1,500-metre strike length of the Fraser Lakes B zone. Multiple intervals of uranium and/or thorium mineralization accompanied by rare earth element enrichment and highly anomalous levels of pathfinder elements were intersected in several of the holes; details are presented in the Company's July 16, 2009 news release.
2010 Winter Drilling Program
The 2010 winter drilling program comprised 2,773 metres in 14 holes and focused on following up previous drilling and exploration of the Fraser Lakes B zones. Anomalous radioactivity was intersected in the majority of holes, accompanied by significantly disrupted and locally clay-altered Wollaston Group graphitic pelitic gneisses (+/-sulphides) and granitic pegmatites.
The drilling has provided compelling evidence for the presence of major east-west and north-south structural corridors that intersect the main northeast-trending EM conductors. Similar structural and geological settings are required for the formation of major basement-hosted unconformity-type uranium deposits. In addition, preliminary analysis of the results from PIMA infrared spectroscopy has indicated a preponderance of illite in a major clay-filled fault system that was intersected in two holes. Illite is an important clay mineral that accompanies many of the significant uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin.
The Fraser Lakes district has numerous similarities to nearby basement-hosted uranium deposits. The alteration and structural patterns associated with the mineralized intervals, as well as preliminary clay alteration patterns as seen from PIMA analysis, are analogous to the basement-hosted mineralization at Eagle Point, Millennium, P-Patch and the Roughrider Zone. In conjunction with the positive geological attributes and anomalous radioactivity, the potential for the discovery of significant high-grade uranium mineralization at Fraser Lakes is deemed considerable.
Geochemical results from the 2010 program should be received for evaluation by mid May. These results will be integrated with the PIMA and on-going structural studies to plan the next phase of drilling.
Quality Assurance / Quality Control
JNR's Vice-President Exploration, 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.
Technical Presentations
 Way Lake Project - Characteristics of Basement-hosted U Mineralization (500 kb)
Way Lake Project - Pegmatite- & Leucogranite-hosted U-Th Mineralization (5.0 Mb)
Quality Assurance & Quality Control Program
|
)
)
)