Basin has been handed the keys to the Geikie uranium project after increasing its ownership up to 60% and opting to become its operator. Pic: via Getty Images
Basin moves to 60% operating interest in Athabasca Basin uranium project
Mining
share
- Basin increases stake in Geikie up to 60%, becomes operator
- Decision made to proceed with Stage 3 of option agreement, which will increase stake to 80%
- Results from drilling and gravity survey expected mid-September
Basin has increased its ownership in the highly prospective Geikie uranium project from 40% to 60% after meeting the expenditure requirement for Stage 2 of its option agreement with TSXV-listed CanAlaska Uranium.
Geikie is one of three Basin projects in Canada’s world-class Athabasca Basin, a top 3 global uranium mining district for over 45 years.
In October last year, Basin Energy (ASX:BSN) picked up an initial 40% stake in the project by issuing the vendor with 10.8 million shares, ahead of its $9m initial public offering in late September.
Basin Energy (ASX:BSN) has now reached the next stage of the option agreement, securing 60% and assuming operatorship of the project. The third stage of the earn in, now underway, will see Basin reach 80% ownership.
It also follows on its successful maiden drilling, which intersected significant alteration and structural framework that is indicative of basement hosted uranium systems.
A airborne gravity gradiometer survey is being flown over the project to help generate targets for the next round of drilling.
“We are pleased to have reached this milestone for Basin, bringing us majority ownership of this exciting project,” Managing Director Pete Moorhouse said.
“Following the initial results of the maiden drilling, the decision to advance to 80% was an easy one to make.
“We look forward to updating the market directly on the ongoing airborne gravity survey and plans to follow up on these exciting initial drill results.”
Geikie project
Under the option agreement, the company had first secured a 40% interest in Geikie through an issue of shares in April last year before meeting the $2.5m exploration expenditure requirement now to take its stake up to 60%.
It is now moving to increase its stake in the project up to 80% by spending a further $5m on exploration, issuing CanAlaska with a further 2.25 million BSN shares and granting the vendor a 2.75% net smelter royalty.
The 350.87km2 project is located 7km southeast of the present edge of the Athabasca Basin – one of the richest sources of uranium on the planet.
It is also adjacent to 92 Energy’s Gemini discovery where drilling returned an intercept of 43m grading 0.6% U3O8 including 6m at 2.2% U3O8, and Baseload Energy’s ACKIO discovery with its 31m intercept at 0.9% U3O8.
And while assays are still pending for its maiden drill program of eight holes totalling 2,217m, this program has already returned early signs of success with downhole gamma probes identifying multiple elevated radioactive zones.
It has also identified a series of regionally significant alteration patterns associated with the intersection of north-south and northwest trending faults within the project area, which along with the radiometric anomalies, confirm the presence of active hydrothermal systems within a complex structural framework at Geikie.
Upcoming activity
Basin expects to receive assays from its maiden drilling as well as results and interpretation of data from its gravity survey in mid-September.
It is also fully-funded to complete follow-up work at Geikie with $5.2m in cash reserves as of 30 June 2023.
This article was developed in collaboration with Basin Energy, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
