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Overview
The Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan presents exceptional discovery and exploration opportunities for companies looking to enter the thriving uranium market. Uranium is poised for significant growth and deficit in the supply side will create opportunities in the market. With new reactors continually coming online to meet demand and a limited number of suppliers to fill it, looking to high-value mining jurisdictions for uranium is one of the best strategies for companies trying to get ahead of the crowd.
Purepoint Uranium Group (TSXV:PTU,OTCQB:PTUUF) has been a major player in the Athabasca Basin for some time now, actively acquiring and operating an exploration pipeline of nine advanced projects, including its flagship Hook Lake project.
The Hook Lake project is a joint venture with two of the largest uranium mining majors in the world, Cameco Corporation and Orano Canada. Purepoint holds 21 percent ownership of Hook Lake and acts as the operator of the joint venture.
The company has another high-value joint venture with its partner Cameco Corporation in its Smart Lake project, where Purepoint, as the operator, holds 27 percent ownership.
Outside its joint venture projects with the world’s largest uranium suppliers, Purepoint holds seven projects in the eastern Athabasca Basin, all 100-percent-owned with clearly defined uranium-bearing targets that have been safely maintained to maximize their value in anticipation of the current uranium price revival.
As the market begins an exciting bull rally in uranium, Purepoint is emerging as the pre-eminent uranium explorer in the world’s richest uranium district. The company has an aggressive exploration program planned for 2023, including:
Geophysical and mapping at the Tabbernor Project scheduled for the summer of 2023;Field work and drilling at Red Willow Fall 2023;Geophysics at Smart Lake JV in the Winter 2023-24Drilling at Carson Project in November 2023Drilling at Hook Lake in Q1 2024.
Purepoint’s leadership team comprises an independent, highly qualified group of experts with deep provincial and regulatory ties, as well as decades of experience in the Athabasca Basin. Together, their expertise in mining, finance and exploration prime the company for exceptional growth and uranium discovery potential.
Company Highlights
Purepoint is advancing several projects towards a discovery in the Athabasca Basin, the world’s richest uranium region.Two high-value partnerships with Cameco Corporation and Orano Canada Inc., with joint ventures on the Hook Lake and Smart Lake projects.Apart from Hook Lake and Smart Lake, the company operates an additional seven, 100-percent-owned, highly prospective uranium projects in Eastern Athabasca Basin, including the Red Willow, Turnor Lake, Henday Lake, Tabbernor Project, Tower Project, Carson Project and Russel South Project.The company has a world-class leadership team with unparalleled experience and exploration expertise in the Athabasca Basin.
Key Projects
Hook Lake Project
The Hook Lake property is located within the Patterson Uranium district and has nine claims totalling 28,598 hectares. The project is jointly owned by Cameco, Orano Canada and Purepoint Uranium. Operated by Purepoint since 2007, the project has seen significant discoveries and exploration campaigns.
Highlights of discovery on the property include the Spitfire high-grade discovery which revealed 53.3 percent uranium oxide over 1.3 meters, including a 10-meter interval of 10.3 percent uranium mineralization measurements. Currently, three prospective structural “corridors” have been defined on the property, each consisting of multiple electromagnetic (EM) conductors confirmed by drilling.
In 2023, Purepoint completed 2,710 meters of drilling in six holes to test the main conductive trend at the Carter Corridor using 800-meter step-outs towards the north in order to identify the most prospective geology.
CRT23-05 returned an assay of 0.08 percent U3O8 ( 671 ppm uranium) over 0.4 meters (319.1 to 319.5 meters) from a 15-meter graphitic shear zone (318 to 333 meters) below the unconformity (283m).In addition, the CRT23-05 mineralization was found to be surrounded by a significant boron halo returning greater than 800 ppm boron over 35 meters (305-340 meters).
Drill hole CRT23-05 targeted a Stepwise Moving Loop Electromagnetic conductor and encountered the unconformity at a depth of 280 meters. The hole intersected a sheared/faulted chlorite-altered, graphitic diorite gneiss over 15 meters before encountering 5 meters of intense clay alteration. The graphitic shear featured elevated radioactivity, including 3,950 cps over 0.9 meters from 318.9 to 319.8 meters and 1,660 cps over 2.2 meters from 330.5 to 332.7 meters from the downhole probe. The handheld spectrometer showed the radioactivity to be almost totally sourced from uranium.
Drill hole CRT23-06 was collared on the same pad as CRT23-05 using a similar dip of -60 but with the azimuth swung 34 degrees toward the south. The target represents a 100-meter step out from the CRT23-05 graphitic shear zone intercept. The hole intersected a 35-meter sheared/faulted graphitic diorite gneiss interval from 309 meters to 344 meters before being completed at 404 meters. The handheld spectrometer showed the radioactivity from CRT23-06 to be primarily related to thorium, suggesting that follow-up drilling should test the area north of CRT23-05.
Red Willow Project
The 100% owned Red Willow Project is situated on the eastern edge of the Athabasca Basin close to several uranium deposits including Orano’s mined-out JEB deposit, located approximately 10 km to the southwest, and Cameco’s Eagle Point deposit that is approximately 10 km due south. The project covers approximately 40,116 hectares and consists of seventeen mineral claims.
Three of the 23 conductive areas, Osprey, Geneva and Radon, have returned anomalous uranium intercepts and were the focus of exploration programs conducted by Purepoint between 2021 to 2023.
3,854 metres of diamond drilling were completed in 15 holes at the Red Willow Project across the Osprey, Geneva and Radon Lake zones in 2023. The 2023 winter drill program continued to follow up on radioactivity along EM conductors that are shared with the neighbouring Orano/Denison Wolly project to the west for both basement and unconformity hosted economic uranium mineralization. As we continue to identify favourable geology, wide- spread alteration and elevated radioactivity across the project, the Company will extend its efforts to the addition- al nine targets zones defined on the property.
Turnor Lake Project
The 100% owned Turnor Lake project is situated on the Eastern side of the Basin along the mine trend that lies in the transition between the Wollaston and Mudjatik geological domains. The project is geologically tied to Cameco’s La Rocque high-grade showings and IsoEnergy’s Hurricane deposit. The property covers approximately 9,705 hectares (ha) and consists of five mineral claims.
In the fall of 2022, Purepoint completed a drill campaign with the objective to initiate first-pass testing of the 2.3 km long Serin EM conductor which lies adjacent to and on trend with IsoEnergy Ltd.’s Hurricane deposit along the LaRocque corridor. The Hurricane deposit is located approximately 10 km west-southwest of the Turnor Lake project boundary and has an Indicated Mineral Resource of 48.61 million lbs of U3O8 based on 63,800 tonnes grading 34.5% U3O8 (IsoEnergy PR; Jul 18, 2022). Two drill holes were completed along the Serin EM conductor, approximately 750 metres apart, and one hole was lost for a total of 1,138 metres.
The initial hole, SL22-02, encountered the unconformity at 290 metres and intersected graphitic-pyritic pelitic gneiss between 336 to 365m that returned 745 cps over 0.4m from the downhole gamma probe. The hole also intersected radioactive pegmatite dykes, one returning an average of 825 cps over 14.6 metres. Drill hole SL22-03 failed to explain the targeted EM conductor or intersect notable radioactivity.
Smart Lake Project
The Smart Lake project is situated in the southwestern quadrant of the Athabasca Basin and is located approximately 18 km west-northwest of the Hook Lake Project and 60 km south-southwest of the Orano Canada Inc.’s former Cluff Lake mine. It covers 9,800 hectares and consists of two mineral claims.
Current ownership of the project is Cameco Corp. (73%) and Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. (27%) with Pure- point being the project operator since 2007.
During the re-logging and reviewing the core from the 2008 and 2012 drill programs of Smart Lake drill core in the summer of 2019, it was immediately recognised that the rocks were similar to those encountered at our Hook Lake JV project.
The 17 kilometres of EM conductors on the Smart Lake property are all considered to be prospective for uranium deposition. Currently, the intersection of interpreted east-west structures and strong conductors are thought to be most prospective.
Groomes Lake Conductor: located on the North grid, the Groomes Lake Conductor is considered a prospective uranium target since, unlike other conductors, it has a favourable north-east strike direction and remains untested.
Shearwater Conductor: located on the Central grid of the Smart Lake project, has been shown to host low-grade uranium mineralization associated with cross-cutting, east-northeast-trending structures. Widespread hydro- thermal alteration along the Shearwater conductor has been traced for 400 metres by drilling which suggests the potential for the occurrence of a larger mineralized system.
The area targeted by drill hole SMT12-10 is still considered a high-priority target. SMT12-10 was collared at an apparent thickening in the Shearwater conductor possibly indicative of a larger, yet unidentified east-northeast trending S2 fault at this location.
Conductor “A”: located on the South Grid and interpreted as an extension of the Shearwater conductor. Only one hole intersected graphitic-pyritic mafic orthogneiss while testing Conductor “A” and it warrants further evaluation.
Management Team
Chris Frostad – President and CEO
Chris Frostad is a founding partner bringing over 40 years of expertise to his position as president and CEO. He led public companies in both the technology and mining and metals industries.
Throughout his career, Frostad has been instrumental in the development and building of a variety of high-growth, early-stage, public and private companies.
Before Purepoint, he held numerous senior positions in the technology industry including CEO-in-residence of a Toronto-based venture capital firm. Frostad is a chartered accountant and a chartered professional accountant who began his career in international taxation with Deloitte.
Scott Frostad – VP of Exploration
Scott Frostad’s experience in the mining industry throughout Canada spans over three decades. He brings to his position as VP of exploration a background in mineral exploration with renowned mining companies such as Lac Minerals, Teck and Placer Dome. Most recently, he was the environmental specialist for Cogema Resources Inc. and managed environmental issues at both the Cluff Lake and McClean Lake Uranium Mines in Northern Saskatchewan.
Frostad is a graduate of Western University with a B.Sc. in geology and holds an M.A.Sc. in mining and mineral process engineering from the University of British Columbia. He is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia and the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan.
Ram Ramachandran – CFO
Before his position as CFO with Purepoint, Ram Ramachandran brings an 11-year tenure as deputy director and associate chief accountant with the Ontario Securities Commission. Most recently, Ramachandran provided advisory services in the area of litigation/compliance to numerous companies. To his credit, Ramachandran conceived, developed and launched the Canadian Securities Reporting Advisor – an online compliance tool for public companies.
Linda Tong – GIS Specialist
Linda Tong has been Purepoint Uranium’s GIS specialist since January 2006. She has over 20 years of experience in GIS application, GIS development and computer programming.
Tong is a graduate of Wuhan University with a B.Sc. in computer science & application.
Jeanny So – Corporate Communications
Jeanny So has over 20 years of experience in operations, investor relations, sales and marketing in the financial industry and has executed corporate communication programs for several private and publicly-listed companies.