Okapi is expanding its uranium portfolio with the acquisition of six advanced and highly prospective exploration assets in Canada’s Athabasca basin.

The Athabasca is a premier address for uranium exploration given that it is home to the world’s largest and highest-grade uranium mines such as Cameco’s McArthur River and Cigar Lake mines.

Several world-class discoveries including NexGen Energy’s Arrow deposit and Fission Uranium Corp’s Triple R Deposit have also been made in recent years.

Additionally, all six of the projects acquired by Okapi Resources (ASX:OKR) are located on the margin of the Basin where the unconformity that hosts the uranium mineralisation is typically about 100m in depth.

This is relatively shallow, making it ideal for targeting shallow high-grade unconformity-related uranium deposits.

“This acquisition is highly complementary to Okapi’s existing portfolio of advanced uranium projects providing Okapi shareholders with exposure across the full exploration and development spectrum,” executive director David Nour said.

“A number of world-class uranium discoveries have been made in the Athabasca Basin in recent years following new advancements in the understanding and exploration of high-grade unconformity style uranium deposits.”

He added that the Cluff Lake and Newnham Lake projects, which will be the initial focus of its exploration activity, have the hallmarks for potential tier-1 uranium discoveries.

“We also remain focussed on advancing Okapi’s Tallahassee Uranium Project towards production following the recent announcement of our maiden JORC 2012 Resources of 27.6 million pounds at 490ppm U3O8.”

okapi resources
Location of Okapi’s Athabasca Projects. Pic: Supplied

Athabasca Basin projects

The six projects – Cluff Lake, Newnham Lake, Kelic Lake, Argo, Lazy Edward Bay and Perch – cover a total area of more than 55,000 hectares along the margin of the Athabasca Basin or in the Carswell Impact Structure.

Cluff Lake is an advanced exploration project within the Carswell Impact Structure, which is the site of a meteor impact that altered the stratigraphy and brought the basement geology and any potential mineralisation closer to the surface.

It is located just 3km east of Orano’s previously producing Cluff Lake mine that had produced 64.2 million pounds of U3O8 and 10km north of Orano-UEX’s Shea Creek deposit, which has resources of 96 million pounds of U3O8 at a grade of 1.3% U3O8.

Grades of up to 16.9% U3O8 have been returned from basement boulder-trains while limited historical drilling has intersected anomalous radioactive anomalism and strong pale green alteration associated with the Cluff Lake breccia that is up to 40m thick at the Donna zone.

Despite this, just 12 holes have been drilled at the Donna zone and further work is required due to zones of anomalous radioactivity coincident with a large gravity low.

VTEM, gravity and radon targets have already been identified.

Meanwhile, historical drilling at the unconformity contact within the Newnham Lake project has returned grades of up to 2,000 parts per million U3O8.

Uranium mineralisation has also been detected along a poorly tested 5km trend within a 25km conductive trend extending into outcropping basement rocks.

Okapi adds that historical exploration was undertaken prior to recent understanding of the importance of basement-hosted uranium deposits with little drilling below 25m depth.

This is notable as the unconformity located about 100m below surface, which is still relatively shallow, has the potential for the discovery of basement hosted uranium mineralisation.

Multiple, high-impact walk-up drill targets have already been identified.

 

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Okapi Resources, 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.