Reitenbach Uranium Property - Athabasca Basin

RNS Number : 9522A

Power Metal Resources PLC

08 February 2022

 

8 February 2022

Power Metal Resources PLC

("Power Metal" or the "Company")

Reitenbach Uranium Property - Athabasca Basin

Historic Data Compilation over the Reitenbach Uranium Property Delivers Exciting Results

Power Metal Resources PLC (LON:POW) the London listed exploration company seeking large-scale metal discoveries across its global project portfolio announces an update on its Reitenbach Uranium Property ("Reitenbach" or the "Property"), which is part of the larger uranium portfolio which includes seven 100% owned interests (Table 1) covering an area of 417.24 km² (41,724 hectares), surrounding the Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan, Canada.

A map highlighting some of the highlight results from the historic data compilation completed on the Reitenbach Uranium Property can be found at the following link:

https://www.powermetalresources.com/reitenbach-property-overview/

Reitenbach Property Overview

-  The Reitenbach Property covers a total of 14,646-hectares (c. 146km²) located in northeastern Saskatchewan, Canada. Saskatchewan ranked third in the most recent 2020 Fraser Institute Investment Attractiveness Index rankings of global mining jurisdictions.¹

-  The Property is centered around seven Saskatchewan Mineral Deposit Index ("SMDI") uranium occurrences, and covers a highly anomlous lake-sediment sample of 130 parts per million ("ppm") Uranium ("U"), the 11^th highest (99.9th percentile) lake uranium assay in the Geological Survey of Saskatchewan lake sediment analysis database ("GSSSD") of 13,195 individual lake sediment samples from the Precambrian Shield area of Saskatchewan. An additional licence was staked recently in order to better cover this highly prospective area (see linked Figure 1)²

-  Reitenbach is in close proximity, or has continguous claim borders with several publically listed uranium companies including Forum Energy Metals Corp., Cameco Corp., and Appia Energy Corp.

-  The Property is prospective for both porphyry-style (incl. thorium-molybdenum-rare-earth element) and metasedimentary-hosted uranium mineralisation.

-  The Company is reviewing multiple strategic outcomes for the Property, including the potential outright sale of the asset. Further updates in respect to the Property are expected in the coming weeks.

Paul Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of Power Metal Resources plc commented:  

"Power Metal has seen considerable interest in the Company's uranium properties surrounding the Athabasca basin, and we see significant value creation potential through the disposal of certain interests either through direct sale to third parties or the creation of new listings in the London markets.

We are therefore accelerating our property review work to assemble in-depth datarooms for each property.  The review of historical data and exploration results of the Tait Hill property were announced previously and Reitenbach Property is covered in today's announcement.

Recognising the importance of uranium to our business, we have recruited an additional uranium focused team member who is working with us now to advance our uranium focused interests.

Further updates will follow as material developments occur."

FURTHER TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Power Metal recently completed an in-depth historical data compilation across its entire uranium Portfolio surrounding the prolific Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, and now possesses a robust fully-digitised database covering all historic work programmes completed across the various Properties, including the Reitenbach Uranium Property.

A total of 10 historic reports were digitised from work programmes covering at least some part of the Property. These date back to 1969, with only one work programme (2007 airborne survey) completed since 1979. As a result, the Property has seen minimal recent exploration.

Reitenbach Compilation Highlights

-  Multiple historic operators noted that the Property has the potential to host either low-grade, large-tonnage porphyry-style uranium mineralistion, or higher-grade, lower-tonnage sediment-hosted mineralisation within unexposed metasedimentary rocks. Two reports highlighted the similarities between Reitenbach and the Rossing Uranium mine ("Rossing") in Namibia, owned by the China National Uranium Corporation Limited, known as the world's longest running open-pit uranium mine.^3,4,5 The average grade mined from Rossing in 2020 was 335ppm U.³

-  The Reitenbach Property is noted as having less than 1% of exposed outcrop, making traditional ground-based exploration difficult. As a result, historic operators have relied heavily on airborne geophysics and boulder sampling, a technique typically used in northern Saskatchewan where mineralised boulders are mapped in order to vector towards a covered outcrop source of uranium mineralisation. Lake sediment results were originally used as a first pass method in order to determine areas with relative uranium enrichment to be targeted for further exploration.

-  Several high-priority radiometric anomalies were identified on Reitenbach from multiple historic airborne surveys. The majority have now been digitised and can be found on the map available through the link above.

-  Historic results highlighted a NE-SW trending boulder train located in the southern part of the Property, with results up to 5,720ppm U (incl. a result of 2,520ppm U). This area is coincident with both:

1)  the regionally important Needle Falls Shear Zone ("NFSZ"), it is noted that 200km to the SW along the NFSZ is the Duddridge Lake uranium deposit; and

2)  the 130ppm U GSSSD result, the 11^th highest lake sample uranium result in the entire province. Further work is required in this area to determine the bedrock source of this uranium mineralisation.⁴ An additional licence was staked recently in order to better cover this highly prospective area (see linked Figure 1).

-  In the northern part of the Property, at least 8 historic boulder samples grading >250ppm U were digitised, including highlight results up to 2,320ppm and 2,883ppm U. Notably, a 1977 lake sediment sampling programme which oversaw the collection 3,042 total lake sediment samples covering an area of approximately 2,800km² (including the Reitenbach Property area), returned two extremely anomalous results of 508ppm, and 452ppm U. Both of these results are located within Reitenbach, and they represent the highest two results from the entire survey.⁵

The Company's interpretation work continues to uncover exciting findings within the historical dataset from our Athabasca uranium portfolio in Saskatchewan, Canada.

With the fully digitised historical dataset now held by Power Metal, we can continue to add value to the uranium portfolio through our interpretation work.  We anticipate additional updates to the market  highlighting our findings in the coming weeks.

Uranium Property Holding Structure

Power Metal has a 100% subsidiary Power Metal Canada Inc ("Power Canada"), which acts as the holding company for certain Canadian project operations. Power Canada has a wholly-owned subsidiary, 102134984 Saskatchewan Ltd, which is the holder of the Company's Saskatchewan uranium portfolio.

Table 1: 102134984 Saskatchewan Ltd., Athabasca Basin Property Holdings*

Project	Licence ID	Area - Hectare
Clearwater Uranium Property	MC00015079	1,110
	MC00015083	563
	MC00015082	3,191
	MC00015151	760
	MC00015646	761
	MC00015658	1,541
Tait Hill Uranium Property	MC00015078	1,576
	MC00015081	968
	MC00015153	1,530
	MC00015152	1,886
	MC00015647	725
	MC00015648	1129
Thibaut Lake Uranium Property	MC00015077	2,206
	MC00015659	2,195
Soaring Bay Uranium Property	MC00015080	1,255
	MC00015155	3,375
Cook Lake Uranium Property	MC00015212	984
E-12 Uranium Property	MC00015213	1,323
Reitenbach Uranium Property	MC00015214	2,135
	MC00015474	1,235
	MC00015655	4,570
	MC00015656	5,322
	MC00015657	856
	AC00017691	528
Total Land Holdings		41,724

*Bold text refers to ground acquired since the most recent acquisition and expansions announced by the Company on 10 November 2021

Reference Notes:

1:  https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/annual-survey-of-mining-companies-2020.pdf

2:  https://geohub.saskatchewan.ca/datasets/gsc-lake-sedimentanalyses/explore?location=57.252950%2C-105.528550%2C6.69

3:   https://www.rossing.com/shareholding.html

4:   Robert J., Munday (Sasktchewan Department of Natural Resources): Ground Evaluation of Airborne Radiometric Anomalies in Crown Reserve 619, Northern Saskatchewan, During Summer 1975 (64L-0018)

5:  David A. Harrigan (Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation): Final Report - 1977 Field Season Wollaston East Project - SMDC Permits 7-10, CBS 4907 NTS 64 L-1, 2, 7, 8 (64L-0012)

COMPETENT PERSON STATEMENT

The technical information contained in this disclosure has been read and approved by Mr Nick O'Reilly (MSc, DIC, MIMMM, MAusIMM, FGS), who is a qualified geologist and acts as the Competent Person under the AIM Rules - Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies. Mr O'Reilly is a Principal consultant working for Mining Analyst Consulting Ltd which has been retained by Power Metal Resources PLC to provide technical support.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR"), and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of MAR.

For further information please visit https://www.powermetalresources.com/ or contact:

Power Metal Resources plc
Paul Johnson (Chief Executive Officer)	[phone]
SP Angel Corporate Finance (Nomad and Joint Broker)
Ewan Leggat/Charlie Bouverat	[phone]
SI Capital Limited (Joint Broker)
Nick Emerson	[phone]
First Equity Limited (Joint Broker)
David Cockbill/Jason Robertson	[phone]

NOTES TO EDITORS

Power Metal Resources plc (LON:POW) is an AIM listed metals exploration company which finances and manages global resource projects and is seeking large scale metal discoveries.

The Company has a principal focus on opportunities offering district scale potential across a global portfolio including precious, base and strategic metal exploration in North America, Africa and Australia.

Project interests range from early-stage greenfield exploration to later-stage prospects currently subject to drill programmes.

Power Metal will develop projects internally or through strategic joint ventures until a project becomes ready for disposal through outright sale or separate listing on a recognised stock exchange thereby crystallising the value generated from our internal exploration and development work.

Value generated through disposals will be deployed internally to drive the Company's growth or may be returned to shareholders through share buy backs, dividends or in-specie distributions of assets.

Power Metal Exploration Programmes Underway/Results Awaited

Power Metal has exploration programmes completed or underway, with results awaited, as outlined below:

Project	Location	POW %	Work Completed or Underway	Results Awaited
Alamo Gold Project	USA	Earn-in to 75%	Excavation of multiple test pits and mapping & sampling.	Field and assay results from on-site work programme.
Authier North Lithium	Canada	Earn-in to 100%	Soil & rock sampling completed	Laboratory assay results of samples collected
Ditau Project	Botswana	50%	Preparatory exploration work underway on target I10 leading to planned accelerated drilling targeting rare-earth elements and base metals	Field programme findings and defined drill targets for near term drilling.
Kalahari Copper Belt	Botswana	50%	Exploration programme underway across the South Ghanzi Project and further exploration at the more recently acquired South Ghanzi Extension and Mamuno licence areas	Field programme findings and defined drill targets for near term drilling
Molopo Farms	Botswana	53%A	Kavango Option to acquire an interest in local project holding company.  Option fee payable through defined work programme	Results from various work activities underway as part of the Kavango Option
Tati Gold/Nickel	Botswana	100%	Reverse circulation drill programme completed	Laboratory assay results awaited
H aneti Project	Tanzania	35%	Diamond drill programme underway	Results from field programme including drill programme underway
Victoria Goldfields	Australia	49.9%	Ongoing exploration across +1500km2 of granted exploration licences	Results from field programme including drill programme underway
Wallal Gold/Copper Project	Australia	83.33%B	Passive seismic and 2D seismic processing work programme completed. Ground reconnaissance work underway.	Results awaited

^A should Kavango exercise their option to acquire Kalahari Key, Power Metal interest would reduce to 40% of the Molopo Farms Complex project

^B   assuming all licences held by URE Metals Pty Limited are granted as outlined in the Company's announcement of 19.11.21 resulting in the issue of First Development Resources Ltd shares to URE vendors

 

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