GTI Resources has doubled the size of its uranium project areas by acquiring adjacent past producing mineral leases in the Henry Mountains, the United States.
The company has entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100 per cent of two mineral leases from Toronto-listed Anfield Energy, in a significant expansion of its uranium project areas that join together the existing Jeffrey and Rat’s Nest projects.
The two strategically located mineral leases serve to connect the company’s current ground positions in the area and will more than double the size of GTR’s contiguous land position by conjoining its most prospective projects at Jeffrey and Rats Nest.
The acquisitions expand GTR’s land position to over 5.5 kilometres along the interpreted strike of the mineralised trend and offer significant exploration upside within untested areas under cover.
This news comes on the back of a successful drilling program at the Jeffrey project where the results of the downhole gamma logging returned high in-situ assay values up to 3,535 parts per million (ppm) uranium equivalent (eU3O8).
In addition, field screening of the drill core with a handheld XRF has yielded results up to 26,388 ppm vanadium.
GTI Resources also announced today that it intends to raise just over $1.8 million via a placement at $0.03 per share and will be launching an underwritten share purchase plan (SPP) to raise a further $978,000 at the same price.
Whilst the company plans the next phase of its uranium exploration in Utah, it looks to be also keeping a close eye on the surging gold price and level of interest in WA gold explorers.
The company plans to allocate some of its new funding toward the near-term drilling of its Niagara (Kookynie) gold project in WA, spurred on by the recent success of its neighbours.
GTR’s Kookynie project is approximately one kilometre from tenements held by Nex Metals and being explored in a JV with Metalicity.
MTC is currently valued by the market at $40 million on the back of recent exploration success.
Currently capitalised at less than $20 million, it appears the market has not fully priced in GTR’s WA gold project yet, and with upcoming drilling on the horizon, it will be something investors will be keeping a close eye on prior to the next phase of drilling in Utah.
Utah Drilling confirms mineralised trend
The completed uranium exploration drilling has confirmed the projected geometry of the mineralised trend, with the trend remaining open in both directions along strike.
Laboratory assay of the drill core is pending, and those results will be released when available.
The next exploration phase is expected to entail a larger drill program, targeting potential development of a shallow JORC mineral resource, and would ultimately inform future production studies.
The shallow nature of the mineralisation supports continued low-cost, rapid exploration advancements.
Harking back to the leases under acquisition, they contain historical underground production workings and are prospective for uranium and vanadium as evidenced from recent sampling conducted during acquisition due diligence which yielded in-field XRF measurements of up to 81,745ppm uranium and 28,375ppm vanadium.
Timing is right as uranium soars
These events are timely as the uranium price is hovering in the vicinity of $US33 ($47.5) per pound, a level it hasn’t traded at since early 2016.
Consequently, there should be robust support for a capital raising of approximately $2.8 million announced today, at a price of 3¢ per share.
GTI Resources is in the process of raising just over $1.8 million via a placement, as well as a further $978,000 through a share purchase plan which is underwritten by CPS Capital Group.
Links between Jeffrey mineralisation and lease under acquisition
The recent initial small-scale exploratory drill program at Jeffrey targeted known shallow mineralisation in a near-surface sandstone unit of the lower Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation, and explored slightly deeper (to circa 20 metres from surface) sandstone units within the fluvial depositional sequence.
The company has successfully identified uranium mineralisation of economic interest in a second, slightly deeper sandstone unit, thereby substantially increasing the potential of the Jeffrey project to host meaningful uranium and vanadium resources, similar to that historically produced.
The mineralised trend is clearly open to the south, with known mineralisation on the property line between the Jeffrey project claims and ML 53599, one of the leases GTR is in the process of acquiring.
Commenting on this development, executive director Bruce Lane said, “These new properties have helped GTI Resources secure a significantly enhanced ground position by securing the prospective ground between our Jeffrey and Rats Nest claim groups.
‘’The new ground substantially increases the interpreted mineralised strike zone within GTI’s land package and materially enhances the opportunity to define an economic resource in the area.
‘’The mineralised trend which was confirmed during our recent round of drilling at Jeffrey remains open in both directions and in particular to the south which runs into the new leases.
‘’The initial sampling conducted on the new leases shows prospectivity for commercial grade ores and the possibility that exploration and development could be relatively quick and inexpensive.”
Providing management with further confidence is evidence of a second deeper mineralised horizon in the southern area of the Jeffrey group adjacent to the neighbouring property.
The mineralisation in the newly acquired property appears to be consistent with the historically mined mineralisation within the Salt Wash Member across the Colorado Plateau.
GTI is consolidating its understanding of the local mineralised system and planning the next phase of exploration.
This should lead to the group expanding the scope of its drilling activity as quickly as possible to include the newly acquired property.
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