Uranium: Athabasca Basin Continues To See Explorers Stake Claims

Land continues to trade hands and be staked in the prolific Athabasca basin region of Saskatchewan as junior miners scramble to grab hold of the premier uranium district in Canada. Several transactions in the region were announced this morning as interest in the popular metal continues to climb.

Atomic Minerals (TSXV: ATOM) this morning indicated it has entered into a letter of intent to acquire a land package amounting to 6,500 hectares of claims across nine properties within proximity to the Basin. The property package is said to include a historic resource from 1957, amount to 620,700 pounds of U3O8 within two zones at the Bleasdell Lake property.

While referred to as a historic resource, no technical report exists for the project, and it is unknown how specifically the resource was calculated, aside from the use of closely spaced shallow drill holes and wider spaced deep holes.

The firm meanwhile also acquired an asset three kilometres southeast of the Rabbit Lake Mine, referred to as Parks Lake, as well as an asset surrounded by Cameco, found 600 metres to the north of the Sand Deposit, referred to as Pistol Lake.

The assets were acquired for a combined $200,000 and 6 million shares of the company.

Fortune Bay Corp (TSXV: FOR) meanwhile acquired the Aspen Uranium Project, consisting of a land package cover 9,869 hectares on the northern rim of the Basin. Historic lake sediments have sampled as high as 989 ppm Uranium, while historical muskeg samples analyzed averaged 2,007 ppm Uranium from 24 samples.

The most recent exploration at the property occurred in 2015, when airborne surveys were conducted that identified several structural lineaments and shallow conductive features. Limited field work however followed the geophysical surveys.

The project was acquired through staking, aside from a single claim which was purchased for “a small cash payment” and a 2% NSR, half of which can be repurchased for a cash payment of $500,000.

Developer Fission Uranium (TSX: FCU) meanwhile continues to demonstrate the demand for investment in uranium, particularly in the Athabasca Basin, announcing this morning a bought deal financing to the tune of $75 million. The financing, led by Canaccord Genuity and SCP Resource Finance, will see 63.6 million shares sold at $1.18 per each.

Proceeds from the offering meanwhile will be used for the further exploration and development of the firms flagship PLS project, as well as working capital and general corporate purposes. The PLS project is a proposed high-grade mine and mill, for which a feasibility study released in January 2023 estimates an after-tax net present value (8%) of $1.2 billion – based on $65 per pound uranium. At current prices, the after-tax NPV(8%) is in the range of $2.47 billion.

Honourable mention this morning meanwhile goes to Pegasus Resources (TSXV: PEGA), an explorer in the region, whom this morning announced the addition of Mike Magrum to the firms Advisory Board. Magrum’s nearly five decade career in mining has seen him previously serve as the president of the Northwest Territories Chamber of Mines, as a director of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, and as an executive is several public companies. He was also part of the team that made the Roughrider uranium discovery in the Athabasca Basin.

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