Vane Minerals PLC
17 November 2005
VANE Minerals plc (AIM: VML)
Acquisition of North Wash Uranium Property in Utah, USA
VANE Minerals plc ('VANE' or 'the Company') today announces that its
wholly-owned subsidiary, VANE Minerals (US) LLC, has acquired the North Wash
Uranium Property located along the east flank of the Henry Mountains in
Southeastern Utah, USA, in the Colorado Plateau Uranium District.
The North Wash Project, at present, contains an inferred geologic resource of
150,000 pounds of uranium ('U3O8') based on data from more than 100 rotary and
core holes drilled between 1977 and 1979. The resource is contained in 35,000
short tons in a tabular deposit grading 0.22% U3O8 with an average thickness of
5.5 feet.
Limited vanadium assay data indicate that the vanadium to uranium ratios, from
three assays in one drill hole on the property, ranged from 7:1 to 69:1 while
the ratios in three drill holes nearby varied from 8:1 to 32:1. This represents
vanadium oxide ('V2O5') grades of 1.5% to 15.2% or 30 to 304 lbs V2O5/ton
respectively. With the price of vanadium oxide at a current high of $12/lb, VANE
plans to establish the actual vanadium oxide grade with further work.
The North Wash Project consists of four unpatented Federal lode claims, which
cover the known mineralisation, and an additional 62 claims along trend located
by VANE during the due diligence period. The total land position covers
approximately 1,363 acres (551 hectares). The property carries a production
royalty of 6% on the four original claims and 1.2% on the additional claims.
The resource is hosted in the Salt Wash Member of the Jurassic Morrison
Formation, which is one of the two major host rocks for the tabular uranium
deposits on the Colorado Plateau. There are several holes not included in the
resource that contain ore-grade mineralisation that have not been offset.
VANE is in the due diligence period on a further two properties in Southeastern
Utah and is actively pursuing additional breccia pipe uranium properties in
Northern Arizona; details will be announced when they become available.
Michael Spriggs, Chairman of VANE commented, 'This acquisition is another
important step in VANE's growth, further strengthening our position within the
uranium sector. Our projects are still in the exploratory stages, but all have
significant upside. We will continue to seek additional holdings as we believe
this is a market which will deliver substantial added value for our
shareholders.'
Enquiries:
VANE Minerals plc Seymour Pierce Limited Parkgreen Communications
Matthew Idiens Sarah Wharry Justine Howarth / Cathy Malins
020 7667 6322 020 7107 8000 020 7493 3713
About VANE Minerals
VANE Minerals was founded by the former international exploration team of
Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., one of the world's largest producers of
copper and gold. The team negotiated exclusive access to Freeport McMoRan's
global exploration database, made up of 7,000 plus files generated over nearly
100 years of exploration and, following the review of these files, VANE is
ideally placed to capitalise on project acquisition opportunities. The Company
has assembled a highly qualified and experienced management team with a proven
track record in exploration and development, who have spent their entire careers
searching for and defining large scale mineral deposits.
The Company's principal objective, as set out at the time of its listing in June
2004, is to be a self-funding exploration company. As such, the initial focus
has been to identify high grade gold-silver projects which can be brought into
production as quickly as possible in order to provide revenue towards funding
the development of potentially much larger projects. VANE is well on its way to
achieving this objective as commercial production began at the Diablito mine in
Mexico in November 2005. The Company will use the revenue generated by this
first producing mine to help fund development work across its attractive
portfolio of gold, silver, copper and uranium assets in Mexico, Paraguay and the
US.
For further information, please review: www.vaneminerals.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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