Greg Klein reports that an announcement on the Athabasca Basin largest undeveloped uranium deposit known to date comes barely two years after NexGen Energy discovered the Arrow zone on its Rook 1 property. And CEO Leigh Curyer anticipates more good news as soon as the winter assays arrive. Hence an update anticipated later this year and a further milestone, possibly going straight to pre-feasibility, seems likely for 2017. With an inferred 201.9 million pounds U3O8, a grade 26 times the global average and $31 million to spend, this company is not wasting any time in developing this new world class deposit.
Although considerably deeper and so far limited to the inferred category, Arrow outnumbers the Fission Uranium neighboring Patterson Lake South for tonnage, grade and pounds. With a 0.25% cutoff, NexGen provided separate numbers for four stacked shear structures, one of them bursting with a stupendous high-grade area.
A1 shear: 380,000 tonnes averaging 0.5% for 4.2 million pounds U3O8
A2 shear: 1.48 million tonnes averaging 0.85% for 27.6 million pounds U3O8
A2 shear: high grade: 410,000 tonnes averaging 13.26% for 120.5 million pounds U3O8
A3 shear: 1.13 million tonnes averaging 1.9% for 47.3 million pounds U3O8
A4 shear: 80,000 tonnes averaging 1.35% for 2.3 million pounds U3O8
Total: 3.48 million tonnes averaging 2.63% for 201.9 million pounds U3O8
The report bases its numbers on 59,796 meters of drilling completed by last October, in which 80 of 82 holes hit significant mineralization. Currently 645 meters in strike, the deposit has a lateral width of 235 meters. It begins 100 meters below surface, just below the unconformity, and extends 820 meters vertically. The deposit remains open in all directions.
The 0.25% cutoff compares to a global average mine grade of 0.1% and, as Curyer emphasized, remains incredibly robust under any measure of economic analysis. Even at a 10% cutoff, Arrow would have 101.3 million pounds, according to data provided.
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