The Makings of a Discovery

Richard (Rick) Mills

Ahead of the Herd

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As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information 

We are going to follow the process a junior resource company takes in making a discovery; in this case we are going looking for uranium, but are also reminded of the Voisey’s Bay story when two diamond prospectors almost inadvertently found a large nickel, copper and cobalt deposit.  This junior has potential for not only uranium, but also gold and platinum group elements.

In this case, our junior is looking in the most prospective and geologically fertile place in the world for discovering uranium. There’s no contest here, if you are looking for uranium the Athabasca Basin in Northern Saskatchewan and Northeastern Alberta is where you need to be.

Athabasca Basin

The Athabasca Basin is an ancient, roughly bathtub shaped, sedimentary basin located along the Northern Alberta-Saskatchewan border south of Lake Athabasca. The Basin covers approximately 100,000 square kilometers in Saskatchewan and a small portion of Alberta.

An airborne survey (a consortium flew an airborne radiometric survey over the Basin in 1967) and follow-up ground radiometric prospecting with systematic drilling led to the early discoveries of Rabbit Lake in 1968 and Cluff Lake in 1970 (the discovery of these two deposits led to the recognition of the unconformity deposit model).

When the Cluff Lake D Zone was found in 1969 the Athabasca Basin become host of the highest grade uranium deposit ever discovered. The D Zone discovery news resulted in a huge staking rush by not only junior companies, but also large multinational oil companies. The Athabasca Basin legend had been born and heralded the beginning of a prolific period of ongoing high-grade uranium discoveries incomparable to any other district in the world.

The initial discoveries were made by airborne then surface indicators – radioactive boulders, geochemical anomalies in the surrounding lakes and swamps and geophysical signatures. Hydrothermal fluids associated with high-grade uranium deposits will cause extensive alteration of the host rock, resulting in displacement and removal of minerals/elements, creating porosity and subsequent density contrast. This density contrast will be expressed as a gravity low anomaly and is a prime drill target when qualified by other coincident indicators of uranium mineralization such as geochemistry and radon.

The discoveries at Key Lake (richest open-pit deposit in the world) in 1975-76 and Cigar Lake in 1981 prompted a growing emphasis on Electromagnetic (EM) conductors as a key factor in exploration for these unconformity deposits.

Electromagnetic surveys outline areas where conductive material exists in the basement rocks. The commonly recognized conductive feature is graphite within meta sedimentary rocks. Although graphite does not always have uranium mineralization, the known uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin almost always have graphite associated with them. Since 2006 virtually the whole basin has been covered by EM surveys.

It’s important to note that the same methods which led to the early basin discoveries are the same methods currently employed to make new discoveries. 

Unconformity-related deposits

Most economic uranium deposits form when uranium is remobilized from one area and re-precipitated in a host rock where chemical conditions are conducive to concentrating the uranium at higher concentrations.

An ‘unconformity’ is a time gap in the rock record between two rock units. In the Athabasca Basin, the lower unit may be deformed brecciated or altered while the overlying units are less deformed. Uranium deposits can occur in both the underlying and overlying units.

In the underlying units, there may be a weathering zone, fault zone or some other feature that increases the rocks porosity and permeability. In the overlying units, it may be the sandstones or some other features that allows the concentration of uranium.  Most commonly these deposits form at or

near a major fault zone, where waters enriched in uranium mixed with a reducing agent that facilitated the deposition of the uranium in the host rock.

The deposits in the Athabasca Basin can occur below, across and immediately above the unconformity, with the highest grade deposits situated at or just above the unconformity (eg Cigar Lake and McArthur River).  The earliest known discoveries within the Athabasca Basin were lower grade basement hosted deposits (eg. Cluff Lake, Key Lake and Rabbit Lake).  Recent discoveries such as Roughrider and Patterson Lake South, are also basement hosted deposits.

Discovery

Geologists – our juniors equivalent of a police forces crime detective – need to follow various clues in order to discover the presence of uranium. That means our geologists need to be experienced in the search for our chosen mineral, knowledgeable in regards to our chosen area, armed with all the latest and greatest tools of the trade, and be up to date on the latest geophysical and geochemical techniques.

Upon interpretation of historical and modern data – and often times our management and geo’s proprietary knowledge of the area – claims are staked.

Initial work often includes airborne surveys that could include VTEM, ZTEM and a full tensor gravity gradiometry survey. Company’s geologists are then sent to the property to collect soil and rock samples, complete radon surveys, and/or complete geophysical surveys such as resistivity or HLEM. Samples are sent to the lab, surveys results are compiled, analyzed and tied together with results from the lab.

If results are favorable and provide good indications for the discovery of a mineralized body, a drill program is formulated and announced in a news release.

Lakeland Resources TSX.V – LK Announces Drill Program at Gibbons Creek and Star Properties

Early stage results from Lakeland Resources (TSX.V – LK) two adjacent north-central Athabasca Basin’s properties – Star and Gibbon’s Creek – were promising enough to vault LK’s properties into Ahead of the Herd’s top spot on the list of prospective for deposit discovery projects in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin.