Aero Energy Ltd. (TSXV: AERO) (OTCQB: AAUGF) (FSE: UU3) has identified promising new targets for its impending drill campaign at its Sun Dog Uranium Project close to Uranium City in northwestern Saskatchewan.
The company also said on Thursday that it intends to start its fully funded drilling campaign next week. It will be targeting high-priority areas looking for high-grade unconformity-related basement-hosted uranium along structure and conductive corridors.
The drill campaign follows the successful completion of a VTEM (Versatile Time Domain Electromagnetics) Plus airborne survey, which found and helped to prioritize multiple prospective drill targets. These undrilled target areas are designed to test conductive corridors marked by newly discovered radioactive graphitic fault zones outcropping at the surface.
At the Wishbone Target Area, recent prospecting has outlined new and historical uranium mineralization at the surface, with radioactivity readings up to 22,300 counts per second (cps) within and immediately adjacent to graphitic pelite that has never been drill tested. The McNie Target Area features more than 4 km of untested VTEM conductors offset by major faults, which host known uranium showings to the east and west towards the past-producing Gulch uranium mine.
In addition, the Spring-Dome Target Area has revealed new and historical zones of strong radioactivity, greater than 65,535 cps at the surface, associated with visible uranium mineralization discovered during the recent prospecting program.
The 2024 Sun Dog Drill Program is set to commence on July 21st, with approximately 1,000 to 1,200 metres of drilling planned within five to seven drill holes. This program will be results-driven, with modifications made based on ongoing results and interpretations.
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Sun Dog covers 48K acres over nine mining claims
The project operates under a three-year earn-in option with Standard Uranium Ltd. (TSXV: STND) signed in October of 2023. Aero will fund the project while Standard operates it.
Sun Dog covers an area of 48,443 acres in nine mining claims, located 15 km from Uranium City on the northern margin of the Athabasca Basin.
Additionally, the site hosts the historical Gunnar Uranium Mine, discovered in 1952, which doubled Canada’s uranium production and became the largest uranium producer globally in 1956. Between 1953 and 1981, the Gunnar Mine produced approximately 18 million pounds of U3O8.
During this period, exploration efforts in the area primarily focused on “Beaverlodge-style” deposits, typically lower-grade, fault-hosted mineralization visible at the surface.
Also, this approach did not target and would not have been effective for, the high-grade “unconformity-related” basement-hosted deposits associated with graphitic rocks recently discovered near the Athabasca Basin’s edge.
“Our recent discovery of strong radioactivity in the right host rocks known as graphitic pelite in hole M24-017 on the adjacent Murmac Property with partner Fortune Bay Corp (TSXV: FOR) proves that our exploration thesis in the area is correct,” said Galen McNamara, CEO of Aero Energy.
“This in turn unlocks a new search space spanning over 30 km along which there are extensive and untested bodies of these graphitic pelite trap rocks known to host significant high-grade uranium deposits like Arrow and Triple R around the Athabasca Basin.”
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Prior Prospecting by Standard Uranium found high grades
Standard Uranium’s recent exploration efforts have focused on the most promising historical target areas along the edge of the Athabasca Basin, specifically Skye, Java, and Stewart Island. They aimed to test down-dip extensions of structures hosting uranium at the surface to discover high-grade unconformity mineralization and basement “roots” of the mineralizing systems underlying the Athabasca sandstones.
Prospecting by Standard Uranium discovered a high-grade uranium showing called the Haven discovery and several other zones at the surface. These zones returned uranium assay results of 3.58 per cent U3O8, 1.7 per cent U3O8, and 0.7 per cent U3O8.
The expanded surface expression of mineralization on south Johnston Island displayed scintillometer readings greater than 10,000 cps and locally off-scale readings greater than 65,535 cps. The company confirmed the historical mineralized surface occurrences on Stewart Island with scintillometer measurements ranging from greater than 500 cps to greater than 65,535 cps.
During the winters of 2022 and 2023, Standard Uranium carried out two drill programs on the project. In total, they completed 2,469 metres of drilling across fourteen drill holes.
Further, these programs successfully identified key geological characteristics prospective for significant uranium mineralizing systems on the project. Notable findings include 0.042 weight per cent U3O8 from 79.0 to 79.5 metres and 0.021 weight per cent U3O8 from 79.5 to 80.0 metres in drill hole SD-23-013.
Uranium City is leading the nuclear renaissance
Uranium City is located in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is a historical mining town that emerged in the early 1950s as a hub for uranium production. Initially established to support the development of the Gunnar and Lorado uranium mines, Uranium City provided for the nuclear energy needs during the Cold War era.
At its peak, the town boasted a population of around 5,000 residents, complete with schools, hospitals, and various amenities. However, as uranium prices declined and mines closed in the early 1980s, the population dwindled significantly, transforming Uranium City into a near-ghost town.
The area is experiencing a resurgence of interest from various mining companies, such as ATHA Energy Corp. (TSX.V: SASK) (FRA: X5U) (OTCQB: SASKF), drawn by the renewed interest in nuclear power as an integral part of the green transition away from fossil fuels.
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