Denison focuses on Wheeler River

Denison Mining plans to follow up actively winter exploration work to expand the highly prospective Gryphon zone after the discovery of a new zone of uranium mineralization at the Wheeler River project in Canada.

The first quarter update from the Canadian exploration and development company presented the findings of 17,700 metres of drilling completed during the winter program at Wheeler River, which resulted in the expansion of the Gryphon zone and also the discovery of a new zone of unconformity-hosted uranium 800 metres to the south.

Discovered last year, Gryphon has the potential to add significantly to Wheeler River's already known mineral resources, estimated at 70.2 million pounds U3O8 (27,000 tU) of indicated resources and 1.1 million pounds U3O8 (430 tU) of inferred resources from the high-grade Pheonix deposit.

Wheeler River will be the primary focus of Denison's summer 2015 exploration program, with additional drilling planned at the Gryphon zone expected to be sufficient to support the preparation of an updated mineral resource later in the year.

The property is located along the eastern edge of the Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan, about 35 km north-northeast of the Key Lake mill and 35 km southwest of the McArthur River uranium mine. It is 60% owned by Denison, along with Cameco (30%) and JCU (Canada) Exploration Company (10%), and has been operated by Denison since 2004.

Operational standby

The company said toll milling of uranium from Cigar Lake at the McClean Lake mill, in which Denison holds a 22.5% interest, continued to grow during the quarter in line with production plans to package six to eight million pounds U3O8 during the year.

However, citing current uranium price forecasts, the company said operations at the McClean North and Midwest projects will remain on stand-by this year. The company confirmed its SABRE (surface access borehole resource extraction) mining technology program at McClean North will also be kept on care and maintenance.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News