GTI Resources will soon kick off uranium exploration in Utah, having successfully completed planning and permitting on its tenements in the region.
Exploration is planned for one of the two new exploration leases recently acquired by GTI (ASX:GTR) in the state which consolidated the company’s land position at the Henry Mountains project, along a 5.5km mineralised trend in the uranium-rich region.
Exploration will focus on a robust development target with more than 1300m of historical underground workings – the subject of exploration activities in Q4 last year. Portable x-ray fluorescence sampling of the workings has yielded values of up to 19.64% uranium oxide and 6.08% vanadium pentoxide.
The sampling demonstrated excellent mineralised potential in all directions.
The company said early-stage exploration work was only beginning to show the prospectivity of the project strongly validating its acquisition of the leases and its overarching strategy for the district.
“GTI is excited about the results of recent exploration activity on the newly acquired leases and sees real potential in the district for mine redevelopment and production of high-grade uranium and vanadium ores,” GTI executive director Bruce Lane said.
“We look forward to commencing our exploration program soon and will provide more details and results as work progresses.”
Having finalised exploration permitting, the company expects field work to commence either this month or in April depending on weather.
Plan of attack
GTI plans to leverage historical drilling and the existing underground developments in Utah to aid in the rapid advancement of the project.
Exploration to date has focused on two historical developments known as the East and West Mines, both of which were operated in the late 1970s and show evidence of more mining modern techniques than seen in many of the projects in the district.
Planned exploration activities include the geophysical logging of numerous exploration drill holes to confirm prior exploration activities, and the advancement of a number of underground core drill holes to test the continuity of mineralisation between open underground workings and distal historical exploration drill holes from surface.
The results of the program will allow for a study of the controls and distribution of ore-grade mineralised materials, as well as generating data for the construction of a possible mineral resource.
That work is planned for Q2 this year, with a follow-up program scheduled for Q3 based on results.
Additional small-scale exploration and sampling activities will also be completed on an ongoing basis.
The Henry Mountains project spans more than 1500 hectares of landholdings in its namesake region of Utah, within the Garfield and Wayne counties.
The region forms part of the prolific Colorado Plateau uranium province, which has historically been the source of the most important uranium resources in the USA.
Sandstone-hosted ores have been mined in the area since 1904, and the region has historically produced in excess of 17.5 million tonnes at 2400 parts per million uranium oxide and 12,500ppm vanadium pentoxide.
A strong history of uranium mining means the region benefits from established infrastructure and a mature mining industry – beneficial for an explorer like GTI as it works towards project development.
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