Date: Feb 20, 2019
Westwater Resources, Inc. (“Westwater,” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: WWR), an energy materials development company,is pleased to announce the receipt of positive analytical results (assays) for vanadiummineralization (as V2O5 – vanadium pentoxide) at our Coosa, Alabama Graphite Project. The recently received assay data was derived from more than 1,900 samples selected from 35 core drill holes and 16 trenches, which were previously sampled and assayed for only graphite as a part of defining the graphite resource in 2015 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) investigation. Sample locations were selected within the Coosa PEA resource area as well as vanadium target areas identified by the 2018 sampling program as presented in our news release of November 29, 2018, in which the Company announced the identification of appreciable levels of vanadium mineralization at Coosa. Positive values for vanadium are widespread and extend considerably beyond the graphite resource defined in the PEA from 2015. This sampling program represents the next stage of exploration of the vanadium mineralization at the Coosa Project.
Four-hundred-forty-one of the 1,923 samples collected for geochemical analysis returned vanadium grades greater than 0.15 percent V2O5 (3 pounds of V2O5 per short ton). Several of the assays exceeded 0.40% V2O5 (8 pounds of V2O5 per short ton). Individual sample intervals ranged from 1.52 feet to 5.0 feet in length each. Numerous continuously mineralized zones (at grades of 0.15% V2O5 or more) have apparent thicknesses in drill holes ranging from 2 feet to 72 feet and apparent widths in trenches ranging up to 50 feet. Limited QEMSCAN and EDX analysis by Actlabs in Ontario, Canada indicated that the vanadium occurs in several mineral phases including roscoelite, low V biotite and low V Fe-hydroxides. Roscoelite is recognized visually in the field by the presence of some bright green minerals and has been a historical source of vanadium from mines in western Colorado and eastern Utah, as well as other localities from the early 1900s to the early 1980s.
These analytical results demonstrate the wide-spread distribution of vanadium mineralization throughout the central portion of the Company’s mineral holdings within the Coosa Project. Key target areas displaying strong and continuous vanadium mineralization include the PEA graphite resource area, known as the Grid deposit area, the eastern margin of the Grid deposit area, the northeastern extension of the Grid deposit, and a parallel belt of favorable quartz-graphite schist (QGS) and quartz-muscovite-biotite graphite schist (QMBGS) that includes the former Fixico graphite mine, the Roscoe Ridge prospect and the Holy Schist target. Data indicates that zones of strong vanadium mineralization are clearly accompanied by strong graphite mineralization.
The wide-spread distribution of highly anomalous vanadium mineralization, commonly in association with strong graphite mineralization, points to the need for comprehensive follow-up drilling and trenching to more fully define the ultimate distribution and intensity (grade) of the graphite and vanadium resources of the Coosa Project. Planning is underway for additional core drilling and surface trenching of individual target areas and extensions of known mineralized zones. Additionally, Westwater will initiate a program to evaluate and assess various processing options to economically recover vanadium as a byproduct to graphite.
