U3O8 Corp. – A dig in the archives
Historic Cogema maps of Roraima Basin as found in GGMC Library 2005
In the summer of 2005, Dr. Keith Barron, U3O8 Corp’s founder and global explorer, travelled south to Guyana to retrace the 20-year old uranium exploration work done by Denison Mines and Cogema (now Areva). Dr. Barron had previously worked in Guyana in 1998-99 in the search for gold and diamonds, and stumbled across a published report by the former Director of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, Dr. Chris Barron (no relation but helpful for getting in the door!) which mentioned uranium.
Dr. Barron dug into the dusty Cogema archives at the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) shooing away the lizards and spiders that had taken up residence in the map tubes. Among the data were reports, maps, drill hole logs and surveys. His desktop study unearthed significant zones of radioactivity and uranium showings identified in the basement adjacent to the Roraima Basin.
Dr. Barron headed next into the jungle at Aricheng with GGMC observers. A four-day field trip yielded strong scintillometer readings in the area in which the Aricheng airstrip is located—including numerous zones of radioactivity ranging from 150 to 250 counts per second. Remains of the Cogema camp sites were found as well as a plastic core box, discarded drill rod and five old drill holes with plastic casings. A maximum value of 452 ppm uranium was returned from a grab sample taken from a boulder containing veinlets of specular hematite, metamict smoky quartz and chlorite.
These results warranted an application with the GGMC in September 2005 for the first reconnaissance permit by Dr. Barron in his private Guyanese company Prometheus Resources, which today remains the operating company in Guyana. Prometheus was folded into U3O8 Corp. By mid 2006, a second permit was granted, extending the company’s exclusive exploration rights over a land position exceeding 1.3 million hectares in the Roraima Basin.
As they say, the rest is history. Within six months of our public offering in December 2006, U3O8 Corp. was fully operational and drilling. Field exploration is underway on the first unconformity uranium targets, and our first resource estimates for basement-hosted uranium was reported in January 2009.