Fission Uranium Releases Latest Patterson Lake South Drill Results

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TSX:FCU

The company plans to have an updated resource estimate for the project ready by the end of the year, and may release a prefeasibility study in 2018.

Fission Uranium (TSX:FCU) has announced the latest drill results from its Patterson Lake South (PLS) property in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin region.
In a Monday (April 24) news release, the company provides results from 16 holes completed at the R840W and R1620E zones at PLS. The PLS property contains the Triple R deposit, which Fission says is the only major deposit in the basin with a high-grade core starting at 50 meters from the surface.
A resource estimate detailed in a September 2015 preliminary economic assessment for Triple R shows that the deposit has an indicated mineral resource of 2,011,000 tonnes at 1.83 percent U3O8 containing 81,111,000 pounds of U3O8; its inferred mineral resource stands at 785,000 tonnes at 1.57 percent U3O8 containing 27,157,000 pounds of U3O8.


Fission President, COO and Chief Geologist Ross McElroy explains in Monday’s release that the results from R840W and R1620E will likely be included in a future updated resource estimate for PLS. In total, six holes were completed at R840W and 10 holes were completed at R1620E.
Assay highlights include:
R840W zone (high-grade, shallow zone 495m west of the Triple R deposit)
PLS17-517 (line 765W):
  • 51.0m @ 1.89% U3O8 (104.5m to 155.5m), including:
    • 5.0m @ 4.03% U3O8 (121.0m to 126.0m) and
    • 7.5m @ 7.31% U3O8 (136.5m to 144.0m)

PLS17-515 (line 765W) key interval:

  • 25.5m @ 2.39% U3O8 (165.0m to 190.5m), including:
    • 6.0m @ 9.04% U3O8 (178.0m to 184.0m)

R1620E zone (high-grade, shallow zone at eastern end of mineralized trend)
PLS17-518 (line 1485E) key interval:

  • 20.0m @ 0.91% U3O8 (72.0m to 92.0m), including:
    • 3.5m @ 2.52% U3O8 (83.0m to 86.5m)

The holes were completed as part of a winter exploration drill program announced by Fission in January. Initially 34 holes were planned, but the company added a further 29 new holes in February.
In a February interview about the expansion of the Fission’s drill program, McElroy said the company is taking advantage of overall improvements in the uranium sector. He commented, “we’ve seen the price of uranium increase over the last three months up 45% from where it was, so we think it still has a long way to go, but it’s certainly a vast improvement from where it was back in the earlier parts of 2016.”


Charts from Ux Consulting Company and Trade Tech indicate that the U3O8 spot price sank to approximately $18 per pound in December 2016. As of April 17, 2017 it was at $23.25. Fission’s share price has firmed from $0.67 to $0.75 since the start of 2017.
McElroy said in March that after the current drill program at PLS is complete another will probably be needed. “[T]he goal is basically to bring our newly discovered high-grade zones, the 840W and the 1620E, into the overall resource estimate. To do that, we still probably need another drill program. That’ll be this summer’s program, which would start in July and go until September,” he said.
He added that the new resource estimate will likely be coming in November or December. The next step “is possibly to move directly into a PFS. We could have that put together by, say, H1/18 if we so choose.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Shaw, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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