Arizona Strip May Soon See Underground Uranium Mine

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Exploration, Mining, Marketing, & Acquisitions

Date posted: 08/27/16

David Louis reports that Energy Fuels Inc.(EFI), is quickly becoming a leading producer of uranium in the U.S. Although the company does not have any mines currently producing in the Grand Canyon state, an exploratory site eight miles south of Tusayan is showing promise. The company announced that drill intercepts have located several large and high-grade areas of mineralization at its Canyon Mine, the site of a previous small-scale conventional uranium mine with a surface disturbance of 15 acres, located in the Arizona strip. The company is currently conducting underground delineations, or core drilling, at a depth of about 1,000 feet below the surface. To date, 13 core holes have been drilled, and most have encountered uranium mineralization in multiple levels throughout the deposit, including nearly nine feet of mineralization with an average grade of 6.88% uranium, which is considered to be high-grade mineralization. Other core sites have indicated 48 feet of mineralization with an average grade of 1.02 % uranium, and 35 feet of mineralization with an average grade of 1.39% uranium. The company anticipates drilling a total of 15 core holes from the first station during the current drilling program, which is expected to be followed up by additional delineation drilling from a second station later this year. All of the old mining areas EFI are considering in this region are all of the same type of mineralization. They are called breccia pipes. These mineralized vertical pipes occur from several feet to 400 feet in diameter and 1,500 to 2,000 feet deep. They are large collapsed structures inside sandstone and limestone deposits that are present in the area. Read on but beware, Louis' reports on China activities are incorrect; China is in a major expansion period of nuclear power plant construction that is expected to last at least a decade and likely longer, the impact of which will support increasing uranium prices.