Kaiser Bottom Fish OnlineFree trialNew StuffHow It WorksContact UsTerms of UseHome
Specializing in Canadian Stocks
SearchAdvanced Search
Welcome Guest User   (more...)
 Thu Aug 18, 2016
Bottom-Fish Comment: De Beers plans late summer drill program at Athabasca Kimberlite project
    Publisher: Kaiser Research Online
    Author: Copyright 2016 John A. Kaiser

 
Canalaska Uranium Ltd (CVV-V: $1.26)
RSProfileSearchWebTreeForumSEDARQuoteIPV

Bottom-Fish Comment - August 18, 2016: De Beers plans late summer drill program at Athabasca Kimberlite project

Canalaska Uranium Ltd has optioned up to 70% of its 4,800 ha West Carswell kimberlite project to Randy Turner's Canterra Minerals Corp on August 17, 2016 on fairly easy terms that require Canterra to spend $4 million over 6 years. The diamond-shaped property is located between Canalaska's 100% owned 100,000 hectare Athabasca Alberta land package on the Alberta side of the Athabasca Basin, and the 17,400 hectare cluster of claims optioned 70% to De Beers. West Carswell hosts six magnetic low anomalies established by a 2010 survey done by the Saskatchewan Geological Survey (note that the anomalies on the De Beers optioned ground are all magnetic highs). Canterra plans to fly a high resolution magnetic survey to better define these targets. Canalaska announced on August 11 that it would be flying a geophysical survey on its Athabasca Alberta claims.

On August 18 Canalaska announced that De Beers is mobilizing a core drilling program to test land accessible targets prioritized by a summer survey flown at 50 metre spacing over the 75 geophysical targets Canalaska staked on the basis of a 400 m spaced government survey. The De Beers survey has refined targets up to 10 hectares in size, though the larger ones tend to be covered by swamp or lakes and will need to be drilled in the winter. One of the smaller targets is depicted in the photo below. A technical session is planned during the last week of ASugust during which Canalaska will be shown details about the survey, and possibly results from the summer sampling program. If De Beers intersects kimberlite it will be an important milestone confirming that at least some of the magnetic high anomalies in the western part of the Athabasca Basin over the Rae Craton are kimberlite pipes. Peter Dasler indicates that he has not yet received results from the till sampling program conducted earlier this summer. The concentrates were shipped to South Africa for picking and micro-probing. What we hope to hear is that kimberlite indicator minerals associated with the diamond stability field were recovered by De Beers. These samples were collected near geophysical targets.

Canalaska also announced on July 26 that Cameco has resuming drilling on the 60% optioned West McArthur project in the Athabasca Basin. The first hole (WMA035 - within the "large star" of the diagram below) drilled in April intersected the C10 conductor but failed to encounter high grade mineralization (May 31, 2016. The presence of anomalous uranium and dravite alteration (boron) support the view that a major mineralized system is present. Cameco's next holes are in the vicinity of previous holes drilled by CanAlaska and Mitsubishi which failed to hit high grade mineralization (the small stars) and where Cameco will apply a different structural interpretation in spotting its holes. Results of the program should be out by early September.

Canalaska's main diamond and uranium prospects are currently priced in S-Curve territory for a McArthur River equivalent outcome worth CAD $1.4 billion as presented in my May 17, 2016 OV. This implies that the stock is vulnerable to a downside move if Cameco fails to report a discovery at West McArthur. However, the aggressive manner with which De Beers is pursuing exploration of the diamond play suggests that it already has the answers to the milestone questions as to whether the geophysical targets are kimberlites, and if so, whether they are diamondiferous. The initial drilling will focus on the "higher" ground in the southern part of the project, so this program cannot kill the story. Any market weakness related to West McArthur disappointment will quickly attract buyers interested in the diamond story which will play until at least mid 2017.


 
 

You can return to the Top of this page


Copyright © 2024 Kaiser Research Online, All Rights Reserved