Kyle and Beahm, both engineers, reported on the Coles Hill uranium deposit (CHUD), located in the Piedmont physiographic province of Virginia, which consists of two approximately 350-meter-long by 250-meter-wide ellipsoidal mineral deposits (NCHD and SCHD). The character of the deposits is shaped by a complex combination of three major factors: faulting, fracture zones, and alteration.
The deposits are hosted within a fault-bounded wedge of Paleozoic mylonitic quartzo-feldspathic gneiss and some amphibolite exposed in the footwall of the Chatham fault zone, which forms the northwest limit of the Danville Triassic Basin. The host rocks are Leatherwood granite gneiss and amphibolite, which display hydrothermal alteration by sodium metasomatism, chloritization, argillization, hematization and uranium mineralization.
The CHUD contains a fracture-hosted hydrothermal deposit, with uranium situated in mylonite. The deposit has characteristics of hydrothermal fracture type uranium deposits. Hydrothermal solutions and associated uranium mineralization are presently hypothesized to have been mobilized by tectonic events [Note the non-geological jargon used by the author engineers].
The mechanism of uranium deposition at Coles Hill is similar to that in the Athabasca Basin, as indicated by the presence of alteration minerals hematite, epidote, and chlorite. A similar deposition mechanism in the Athabasca Basin has produced significant-grade uranium mineralization, which might also occur in the untested deeper parts of the Coles Hill Deposits (Jerden 2001).
Exploration Status
Virginia Uranium Inc. obtained permits for uranium exploration in November 2007 and started a core and rotary percussion drilling program in December 2007. By May 2008, the Company completed three core holes totaling 4,510 feet, seven rotary percussion holes totaling 8,758 feet, and the re-assaying of about 60 feet of core drilled by Marline.
Subsequent to the Behre Dolbear, 2008 technical report, Virginia Uranium, Inc. acquired the original drill hole data including geophysical and lithological logs, half foot uranium grade equivalent data, and chemical assay data both from core analysis and Delayed Neutron Logging (DNL). The original data was
more complete and included 263 drill as compared to the 230 previously available. The data was transcribed from the original analog format to digital format and was used for the current resource estimate.
Proposed Development and Operations
No development activities in the field, other than exploration have occurred. Lyntek, in cooperation with BRS, Inc. evaluated the mineral resources, mining concepts, and processing of the mineralized material from the Coles Hill Uranium Property. In summary, the preferable mining method is an underground
stoping method. Although surface mining is a potentially viable option, it appears at this point in time, that an all underground mine approach can be effectively employed.
Both acid and alkaline processing methods have been investigated. Due primarily to the consumption requirement and relative cost of sulfuric acid, an alkaline process is the most viable in spite of a slightly lower recovery rate. Adequate information is available for this level of study given the historical efforts and recent tests that have been conducted.
[This is an inadequate 43-101 report on this deposit]
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