Nuclear Fuels Inc. (CSE: NF) (OTCQX: NFUNF) ("Nuclear Fuels") mobilized two drills for the second phase of its 200 hole drill program at the Kaycee Project in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. In 2023, 89 drill holes were completed. Drilling in 2024 will continue to expand historic uranium mineralization at depth and expand mineralization along trend and on other high priority targets identified.
Nuclear Fuels is focused on the exploration and exploitation for In-Situ Recovery ("ISR") uranium resources. ISR technology extracts uranium in a non-invasive process using natural groundwater and oxygen, and a proven ion exchange process, for uranium recovery
Highlights:
- Phase 1 drilling in 2023 successfully confirmed and expanded historic resources returning grades ranging from trace to 6.5 feet at 0.187% U3O8(Gamma log) with a grade thickness of 1.216*;
- In 2024, Phase 2 drilling will commence with 111 permitted drill sites designed to expand the areas drilled in 2023 and define new mineralized zones along trend.
- Based on the success of the 2023 drilling, an amendment to our drill permit has been filed to significantly expand the target area for drilling and increase the number of drill sites.
- This work continues to build our Kaycee ISR focused project base as well as advancing the Bootheel project in Albany County, Wyoming.
Michael Collins, Chief Executive Officer of Nuclear Fuels stated, "We are in a long-term demand driven uranium cycle. The Kaycee Project provides a great opportunity to grow an economic ISR uranium resources in one of the most prolific ISR amenable sandstone hosted uranium basins in the US. We look forward to a successful year at both Kaycee and our wider Wyoming uranium project portfolio.
Kaycee Uranium Project, Wyoming
The Kaycee Project in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, Nuclear Fuel's priority project, consists of over 42 square miles of mineral rights over a 33-mile mineralized trend hosting more than 110 miles of identified roll fronts. The Kaycee Project is believed to be the only project in the PRB where all three known historically productive sandstone formations (Wasatch, Fort Union, and Lance) are mineralized and potentially accessible for ISR extraction. The Kaycee Project, under Nuclear Fuels, represents the first time since the early 1980's that the entire district is controlled by one company.
Nuclear Fuels acquired the Kaycee Project from enCore Energy Corp., which retains a back-in right for 51% of the project by paying 2.5X the exploration costs and financing the Kaycee project to production (costs recoverable from production) upon Nuclear Fuels establishing a minimum 15 million pound U3O8 43-101 compliant resource.
Wyoming is a proven and prolific uranium producer with a pro-energy government and established regulatory regime for the permitting and extraction of uranium through ISR technology. As Wyoming is one of the few "Agreement States", hosting ISR uranium deposits, where the federal government and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have ceded regulatory authority to the state government, permitting, and advancing uranium projects is more efficient and streamlined as compared to most other states. Wyoming, with over 250 million pounds of historic production, ranks as the state with the second most uranium production to date; most of which has been through the ISR method since 1990; predominantly from the Powder River Basin.
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mark Travis, CPG., a contractor to the Company, and a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101.
*Drill holes are reported that returned significant zones of uranium mineralization with >2 ft thickness at or above a grade cut-off of 0.02 per cent eU3O8 or that are relevant to exploration targeting. %U3O8 by Gamma logging is a measure of gamma intensity from a decay product of uranium. Gamma log assays may be in disequilibrium with ICP-MS or PFN assays. Comparisons of U3O8 Gamma log and ICP-MS assays of Powder River Basin core samples indicate that U3O8 Gamma is comparable to ICP-MS uranium assay in the Powder River Basin. Grade Thickness, or GT, is defined as the product of the mineral grade multiplied by the thickness of the mineralization.
Drill holes are completed by Single Water Services using a 4.75 inch diameter rotary drill rig. Chip samples are collected for lithological logging every five feet. Century Geophysics of Tusla Oklahoma is contracted to conduct downhole gamma ray, resistivity, spontaneous potential, and deviation. Century Geophysics calibrates its downhole tools in the US Department of Energy uranium logging Test pits in Casper Wyoming to ensure the accuracy of the downhole gamma ray log measurements.
