The Laguna Salada Project is located in a semi-desert environment
The Laguna Salada Project in Chubut Province, Argentina is a surficial uranium target in which uranium-vanadium mineralization occurs within three metres from surface in unconsolidated gravel in a semi-desert environment. A total of 463 trenches have defined two areas of near surface uranium-vanadium mineralization extending over 16.4 square kilometres.
The continuity of mineralization, shallow depths and unconsolidated nature of the gravel that contains the uranium-vanadium at Laguna Salada offers a potential low-cost mining opportunity. A mechanized trenching program of about 1,000 trenches is underway, aimed at expanding the mineralized area and towards completing a NI 43-101 resource in late 2010. Coffey Mining, an independent consulting company experienced in surficial-type uranium, has been retained to undertake the NI 43-101 resource estimate, and visited the site in May 2010.
Trenching has proved to be the most effective means of evaluating the Laguna Salada mineralization. Due to the soft, unconsolidated nature of the sandy gravel, diamond drilling is ineffective since the gravel cannot be retained in the core barrel. A total of 51 reverse circulation (“RC”) bore holes were drilled for 1,657 metres at Laguna Salada and the results of samples from this drilling were significantly lower than trench samples taken at the same location. This is due to the powdery uranium-vanadium mineral, carnotite, being partially blown out of the sample by the high air pressures used in RC drilling.
Assay Results
A total of 463 trenches have defined two areas of near surface uranium-vanadium mineralization extending over 16.4 square kilometres. A trenching program of about 1,000 trenches is underway, aimed at expanding the mineralized area.
Summary of assay results from the 285 trenches (of the 463 trenches excavated) in the Laguna Salada Project that have grade-thickness values >50 parts per million - metre.
The results have been separated into three groups according to the uranium grade-thickness value from each trench. Grade-thickness is the uranium grade in ppm multiplied by the thickness in metres of the uranium-bearing layer in each trench. This table shows the average grade and average thickness of all the trenches within each of the three groups. The arithmetic average thickness of the uranium-vanadium-bearing layer in the 285 trenches is 0.82 metres at an average sample grade of 201ppm U3O8 and 881ppm V2O5. The average density of the gravel is 1.72 tonnes per cubic metre.