GTI Energy Ltd (ASX: GTR) (GTI or Company) advises that drilling has now commenced at its 100% owned Lo Herma ISR Uranium Project (Lo Herma) located in Wyoming’s prolific Powder River Basin (Figures 1 & 2). The drill program is utilising mud rotary drilling & down hole gamma logging.
- Mud rotary drilling has started at GTI’s Lo Herma ISR uranium deposit.
- Initial drilling of up to 26 holes (~15,000ft/~4,600m) to validate and upgrade the maiden JORC inferred resource of 5.7Mlbs U3O8 at average grade 630ppm
- Drilling to also target exploration potential along trend in the Wasatch Formation & in the deeper Fort Union Formation which Cameco produces from ~10 miles west.
- Lo Herma is ~10miles from the US’s largest ISR U3O8 production plant at Cameco’s Smith Ranch-Hyland & ~60 miles from UEC’s Irigaray & Energy Fuels’ Nichols Ranch
FIGURE 1. MUD ROTARY DRILLING AT GTI’S LO HERMA PROJERCT, POWDER RIVER BASIN (WY)
LO HERMA URANIUM PROJECT – LOCATION & BACKGROUND
The Lo Herma ISR Uranium Project (Lo Herma) is located in Converse County, Powder River Basin (PRB), Wyoming (WY). The Project lies approximately 15 miles north of the town of Glenrock and close to seven (7) permitted ISR uranium production facilities. These facilities include UEC’s Willow Creek (Irigaray & Christensen Ranch) & Reno Creek ISR plants, Cameco’s Smith Ranch-Highland ISR facilities and Energy Fuels Nichols Ranch ISR plant (Figure 2). The Powder River Basin has extensive ISR uranium production history with numerous defined ISR uranium resources, central processing plants (CPP) & satellite deposits (Figure 2). The Powder River Basin has been the backbone of Wyoming U3O8 production since the 1970s.
FIGURE 2. WYOMING IS URANIUM PROCESSING PLANTS & GTI PROJECT LOCATIONS1
As reported to ASX on 14 March 2023, a comprehensive historical data package, with an estimated replacement value of ~$15m, was purchased for the Lo Herma project in March of 2023. The data package includes original drill data for roughly 1,771 drill holes, from the 1970’s and 1980’s, pertaining to the Lo Herma region. 1,391 original drill hole logs were digitised for gamma count per second (CPS) data and converted to eU3O8% grades. 845 of the drill holes were located on GTI’s current land position & used to prepare the Mineral Resource Estimate.
An initial exploration target for the Lo Herma project was previously announced to the ASX on 4 April 2023. An additional data package containing previously unavailable drill maps with geologically interpreted redox trends was subsequently secured by GTI as announced to the ASX on 27 June 2023. The additional redox trend interpretations allowed for an update of the previously reported Lo Herma exploration target (Table 1).
TABLE 1: SUMMARY OF INFERRED MRE & EXPLORATION TARGETS (ASX 5 JULY 2023)The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Targets is conceptual in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to estimate a JORC-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a Mineral Resource in the defined exploration target areas.
DRILLING PLAN
The initial drilling program is a 26-hole (~15,000ft/~4,600m) campaign to both confirm a subset of historical drill holes as well as explore untested locations and depths. Drilling is expected to average 500 feet with a maximum potential depth of 1,500 feet.
Several of the drill holes are sited to target locations for confirmation of the historical drilling data. If conditions allow, the drillers will attempt to recover rock core samples of the mineralized zone for metallurgical testing. In addition to the confirmatory drilling, drill holes have been planned to test the alteration conditions of the host sand units across the property and geologic strata. This will help in further refining the locations of the projected REDOX trends and in improving targets for future exploration. These stratigraphic holes will also bring the benefit of testing the deeper sand units of the Fort Union formation which were historically underexplored.
This initial program is part of a larger permitted campaign totalling 68 holes with the balance of the campaign to be refined & assessed for execution during 2024 subject to results.
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FIGURE 1. MUD ROTARY DRILLING AT GTI’S LO HERMA PROJERCT, POWDER RIVER BASIN (WY)
FIGURE 2. WYOMING IS URANIUM PROCESSING PLANTS & GTI PROJECT LOCATIONS1
TABLE 1: SUMMARY OF INFERRED MRE & EXPLORATION TARGETS (ASX 5 JULY 2023)The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Targets is conceptual in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to estimate a JORC-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a Mineral Resource in the defined exploration target areas.
FIGURE 1. GTI WYOMING PROJECT LOCATIONS
Figure 1 The Talus Uranium Prospect depicting the location of the incredibly high-grade soil samples. Note: surface geochemistry is highly coincidental with the large existing anomalous radiometric corridor.
