Ms. Ann Baines reports
LARAMIDE COMMENCES 2024 AUSTRALIAN DRILLING CAMPAIGN
Laramide Resources Ltd.'s 2024 drilling campaign has started at the Westmoreland project in northwest Queensland. The 2024 work plans include up to 12,000 metres (m) with over 100 drill holes, designed to test multiple targets across the Westmoreland uranium project in northwestern Queensland and into the Murphy uranium project in the Northern Territory.
"We are excited to see drilling under way at Westmoreland after a prolonged wet season," says Laramide's president and chief executive officer Marc Henderson.
"The 2024 drill program expands materially on the successful 2023 and 2022 programs which identified targets for both expansion of existing resources, as well as new potential satellite deposits.
The goal this year is to investigate whether the three known deposits that were the basis of the 2016 PEA study can be linked and, if so, whether this could substantially increase the deposit size.
"We believe that our large strategic land position has some of the best potential for meaningful resource growth within Australia -- and within the uranium sector generally. Furthermore, we believe that our expanding exploration effort comes at an ideal time as nuclear power gains renewed acceptance globally and energy policy considerations everywhere take centre stage.
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Current plans call for the first rig to commence drilling at the Amphitheatre prospect located 16 kilometres (km) to the northeast of the Junnagunna deposit. Seven holes are planned to expand on shallow mineralization identified in 2023 (18.41 m at 352 parts per million (ppm) U3O8 from 49.21 m, including 0.66 m at 2,452 ppm (0.25 per cent) U3O8 from 49.21 m and 0.84 m at 1,910 ppm (0.19 per cent) U3O8 from 69.06 m) and will target interpreted extensions under alluvial cover to the north.
The second rig is scheduled to arrive in early July and the rigs will then move to the main resource areas to test extensions of mineralization that potentially link the main deposits of Redtree, Huarabagoo and Junnagunna and could enhance the economics of the deposit significantly. In addition, drilling at Long Pocket will enable a maiden resource estimation before the end of the year.
The 2024 plan also includes returning to the Murphy project in the Northern Territory to investigate drilling completed in 2007. A 1,500-metre drill program will revisit the areas of interest identified in Laramide's 2006 to 2007 exploration program and includes Mageera which appears to be a geological analogue of Westmoreland. At the southern end of this system lies the Southern Comfort uranium and critical mineral prospect. Drilling at Southern Comfort will be co-financed by the Northern Territory government.
Laramide is also pleased to confirm the award of a second exploration grant from the Northern Territory Geological Survey which will contribute to funding a gradient array IP (GAIP) survey at the Crystal Hill critical minerals prospect.
Resource extension drilling
Currently, mineral resources are defined across three deposits: Redtree, Huarabagoo and Junnagunna. These zones follow the Redtree dike zone (approximately 10 km) on a northwest trend as discrete orebodies. The 2016 PEA optimized pit designs and labelled them as South, Central and North pits respectively. The mineralization in the 2.5-kilometre corridor between the deposits is hosted in the coarse-grained to granular Westmoreland conglomerate, includes higher grades (over 0.1 per cent) associated with the fractured footwall contact of intrusive dolerite dikes and remains sparsely drill tested.
The company plans to test the linking zone (JG-HB link) by drilling northern extensions to the high-grade Huarabagoo northeast toward Junnagunna. The company is encouraged by a zone of mineralization existing halfway between the deposits as reported in the 2013 drill program (WDD12-152 -- 11 m at0.13 per cent U3O8) that remains open to the northeast and southwest.
Further resource growth is targeted through northern extensions to the 11 million pounds U3O8 Junnagunna deposit. The northern extensions of the dike are sparsely drill tested between Junnagunna and the Wanigarango uranium prospect 1.5 km to the northeast.
Long Pocket
Long Pocket is located seven km to the east of Junnagunna. In-house modelling of the Long Pocket deposit has highlighted zones where infill drilling will support a maiden mineral resource estimation. The company has planned up to 1,000 m drilling to ensure appropriate drill spacing in order to show continuity of mineralization. It is anticipated that the addition of Long Pocket, which is shallow and easily accessed, to the Westmoreland Mineral Resource base would enhance the economics of the project and possibly contribute to an extended mine life profile.
Murphy uranium project, Northern Territory
Mageera and Southern Comfort drilling
The Mageera prospect (formerly NE Westmoreland) represents a geological analogue to the Westmoreland system. It is located on a 10-kilometre northeast-trending mafic dike which truncates the Westmoreland conglomerate and Siegal volcanic package under variable depths of alluvial cover. Historical reports suggest uranium is hosted at dike margins and the adjacent sandstones, but also in the unconformable contact between the Westmoreland conglomerate and the Seigal volcanics.
In 2006 to 2007, reconnaissance drilling at Mageera (then known as NE Westmoreland) returned encouraging results, including drill hole NEWM204 intercepting four m at 0.42 per cent U3O8. This year, the plans include up to 1,000 m in follow-up drilling.
The Southern Comfort uranium prospect is located at the southern extent of this trend and saw historical work in the 1970s. Laramide has been awarded $60,000 under the Northern Territory Geological Survey's exploration grant scheme to test the genetic linkage of uranium mineralization at Southern Comfort and Mageera toward proving almost 10 km of mineralized strike length.
Crystal Hill and Fish River -- gradient array IP survey
A Northern Territory geological survey grant to reinvigorate exploration for critical minerals is supporting the funding of a gradient array IP (GAIP) survey at the Crystal Hill prospect. Laramide has been awarded $100,000 to support this exploration work. The Crystal Hill prospect is a vein-hosted intrusion related tin (Sn)-tungsten (W) target which was superficially worked by BHP in 19597, with shallow auger drilling intersecting zones of reportedly exceeding over 12 per cent SnO2 (tin oxide). Historic reports suggest coarse-grained cassiterite and wolframite is hosted within east-west-trending greisenised quartz veins.
The gradient array component will comprise a minimum of six survey blocks each roughly 1.5 square km, at 200-metre line spacing with 50-metre station spacing and dipole-dipole IP component comprising a minimum four survey lines of three km for a 12-kilometre total length split between prospects Crystal Hill (two lines) and Fish River (two lines).
Qualified/competent person
The information in this announcement relating to exploration results is based on information compiled or reviewed by Rhys Davies, a contractor to the company. Mr. Davies is a member of the Australasian Institute of Geoscientists and has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralization and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a competent person as defined in the JORC 2012 edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves, and is a qualified person under the guidelines of the National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Davies consents to the inclusion in this announcement of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.
About Laramide Resources Ltd.
Laramide is focused on exploring and developing high-quality uranium assets in Australia and the Western United States. The company's portfolio comprises predominantly advanced uranium projects in districts with historical production or superior geological prospectivity. The assets have been carefully chosen for their size, production potential and the two large projects are considered to be late-stage, low-technical risk projects.
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