Foremost Clean Energy starts 1,000‑metre Turkey Lake drill program
The Saskatchewan uranium explorer plans to test about four target areas, most beneath less than 50 metres of sandstone cover.
Mara Quinlan
Foremost Clean Energy Ltd. CNSXFAT NASDAQFMST said on Monday it has started its first diamond drill program at Turkey Lake in northern Saskatchewan, with 1,000 metres planned. The uranium explorer intends to test about four target areas, most with less than 50 metres of sandstone cover.
Shares last traded lower at C$0.81 on the Canadian Securities Exchange at 4 p.m. EDT on Oct. 30, according to CNSXFAT. That quote precedes Monday's announcement.
Foremost raised C$5.7 million gross in a bought-deal flow-through placement on March 31 for exploration on its Saskatchewan and Manitoba properties. The drill-start announcement gives neither a separate Turkey Lake budget nor a date for first assays.
The company's Oct. 22 agreement would preserve a path to 70 per cent ownership at Turkey Lake through a further earn-in. The proposed amended terms require C$12 million in additional eligible exploration spending across the remaining eight properties, plus C$2.5 million in cash or shares.
The new drilling targets draw on a ground gravity survey completed in January 2026, combined with historical drilling, electromagnetic, magnetic and geological data. Foremost prioritized gravity lows that coincide with conductors or interpreted structural features along more than 10 kilometres of underexplored conductive strike length.
"The program is intended to test whether these features reflect alteration and structures capable of hosting uranium mineralization, which could occur both near the shallow unconformity and within the basement," vice-president of exploration Cameron MacKay said in the release.
Turkey Lake straddles the northeastern edge of the Athabasca Basin, giving Foremost targets at the shallow sandstone-basement contact and in basement rock beyond the basin's margin. The company interprets the gravity anomalies as possible alteration zones and fluid pathways, which the drilling is intended to test.
Previous drilling identified uranium mineralization, but the release cautions that its qualified person has not independently verified those historical results. They should not be relied on as indicating the grade or extent of mineralization on the property.
The current program is smaller than the 2,000 to 2,500 metres outlined in its December 2025 exploration plan, which scheduled Turkey Lake drilling for summer. The earlier plan also included drilling at Hatchet Lake and Jean Lake, so its budget covered several properties.
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The March placement requires qualifying exploration expenditures on the Saskatchewan and Manitoba properties by Dec. 31, 2027. The qualifying work must meet Canada's flow-through critical mineral mining expenditure rules.
Foremost will renounce the placement's qualifying exploration expenditures to investors effective Dec. 31, 2026.
