NexGen Energy (TSX: NXE) has expanded the high-grade subdomain at its Patterson Corridor East uranium discovery by 33% on the back of its recently concluded 2026 winter drill program, pushing the vertical extent of the zone to 550 metres with a strike length of 210 metres.
The winter campaign completed 12,758 metres of the 42,000 metres planned at PCE for 2026. Thirteen holes were drilled into the existing mineralized system, while another six holes tested a parallel trend roughly 600 metres to the southeast, where structural and alteration features are pointing toward a possible repetition of mineralization within the PCE system.
Vertical growth in the subdomain was driven largely by hole RK-26-280c1, which hit 4.2 metres of cumulative high-grade readings above 10,000 cps, including 0.6 metres of off-scale (>61,000 cps) mineralization at 834 metres depth. The hole extended a high-grade shoot 230 metres down plunge.
Elsewhere in the subdomain, RK-26-271c1 returned 12.6 metres of cumulative high-grade radioactivity, including 2.3 metres of off-scale readings, positioned 80 metres down plunge from RK-25-256, the hole that earlier returned 5.5 metres at 21.4% U3O8. Holes RK-26-276 and RK-26-285 added further continuity at depth, each intersecting roughly nine to eleven metres of cumulative high-grade material between 600 and 700 metres below surface.
Summer drilling of roughly 29,200 metres is scheduled to begin at the end of May. Across 115 holes drilled at PCE since discovery in early 2024, 79 have hit mineralization, with 54 intersecting high-grade and 21 returning off-scale readings.
Chief Executive Officer Leigh Curyer said the winter results point to a system that still has considerable room to grow. “Today’s results from the 2026 winter program confirm both the scale and growth of PCE continues to advance at pace,” he commented. “Increasing the vertical extent of the high-grade subdomain by 33% during the winter program, suggests substantial drilling is required going forward to fully understand the extent of this mineralized zone.”
He added that the company is well placed to meet what he described as strong long-term demand for Canadian uranium.
The timing is notable. Construction of NexGen’s flagship Rook I Project, which received its final federal licence from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in March, is set to begin this summer. PCE sits 3.5 kilometres east of Rook I’s Arrow deposit and is increasingly being evaluated as a potential contributor to the company’s longer-term production profile rather than as a standalone deposit.
Rook I is being advanced as what NexGen describes as the largest low-cost producing uranium mine globally, a profile that has taken on added weight as nuclear power re-enters favour among governments and the hyperscalers building out AI data centre capacity.
NexGen Energy last traded at $17.27 on the TSX.
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