Athabasca Basin, Northern Saskatchewan
The Key Project is comprised of five mineral claims totaling 5,998 hectares 14,822 Acres) in four separate blocks all located from within 5 to 23 kilometres of the former producing Key Lake Uranium Mine on the southeast rim of the Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan. A uranium mill remains in operation at the site processing ore from the McArthur River mine. Previous exploration on the properties was limited. Magnetic lineaments indicate a varied and disrupted geology within the underlying terrain, providing the opportunity for basement hosted uranium mineralization, similar to the nearby, newly discovered Millennium deposit.. The potential of this project is for unconformity style Uranium mineralization of both the Simple (Low REE, basement hosted) and the Complex (High REE, Sandstone hosted) types of Uranium deposits. Despite a large number of assessment reports covering parts of the properties, there has been little intensive exploration directly upon them. Exploration models of Uranium mineralization at the time of previous exploration work did not take into account the potential for basement hosted deposits on all five mineral claims. Modern airborne geophysical survey technology will allow the defining of graphic conductors far deeper than the previous exploration cycle's 300 metre limit. A three hole, 549 metre drill program was carried out on the property by CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. and was completed between Jan 21 and Feb 11, 2007. The program focused on testing the source and significance of a short 700 meter long electromagnetic conductor identified in the 2006 Geotech VTEM survey. This conductor parallels the Key Lake Fault zone, which hosted most of mineralization at the Key Lake Mine approximately 15 km to the east north east. Hole KEY 001 encountered 0.15 metres of 0.058% U3O8 from 184.7 to 184.85 metres. Holes KEY002 and 003 encountered only anomalous uranium, with maximum values of 42 ppm and 18 ppm U respectively (100 ppm U = .012% U3O8). Though only minor uranium mineralization was encountered in these holes, the Key Lake drilling results are significant in the identification of a favorable graphitic horizon parallel and north of the Key Lake Fault structure, cut by a major fault system with associated chlorite - hematite alteration. In addition, clay mineralogy has identified a transition from kaolinite (KEY 002 & 003) to illite in KEY 001, which is considered an indicator of uranium mineralization. Analysis of the structural information, the relation of the conductive trend with the cross cutting magnetic trend, and additional investigation of the relationship of the major structure with the graphitic zone will be needed to better define the orientation of this major fault system. This should lead to the identification of potential targets areas for investigation. A program of detailed magnetic and electromagnetic surveys were carried out in August 2007.