Rea Uranium Project
Overview
- Rea Uranium Project is a joint venture between Brazil Resources Inc. (75%) and Areva Resources Canada Inc. (25%)
- Large land package comprised of 12 contiguous exploration permits (88,464 Ha), which surround Areva’s high-grade Maybelle River deposit in the western portion of the Athabasca Basin (Fig. 1)
- The permits are located approximately 185 km north-northeast of Fort McMurray, Alberta, which is serviced by daily scheduled commercial flights from Edmonton and Calgary
- An all-weather road exists up to Fort McKay, about 110 km south of the project area, and winter roads provides access to the permits from November through April
- Project covers northern and southern extension of structure hosting the Maybelle River deposit as well as several parallel structures with potential to host high-grade uranium mineralization
- Areva continues to explore the Maybelle River deposit with drilling intersecting relatively shallow mineralization
- Recent discoveries 75 km to the east at Patterson Lake South (Fission Uranium Corp.), Rook 1 (NexGen Energy Ltd.) and Hook Lake (Purepoint Uranium Group Inc.) highlight the potential of the underexplored western Athabasca Basin
- Exploration expenditures (approx. $10 million) spent by majors including Eldorado Nuclear, Uranerz, and Areva (UraMin) provides basis for ongoing exploration programs
Athabasca Basin
- The Athabasca basin is the most important uranium-producing district in the world accounting for approximately 15% of global primary uranium production in 2012
- Unconformity-type uranium deposits in the Athabasca basin are the highest grade deposits in the world
- Deposits have yielded over 1.5 billion pounds of U3O8 in past production
- The in-situ value of the uranium deposits within the Athabasca basin rivals that of major gold mining districts and the Canadian diamond mines, making them attractive exploration targets
- The vast majority of uranium discoveries to date are located in the eastern portion of the basin with the exception of:
- Maybelle River (high grade deposit),
- Cluff Lake (production of 64 million lbs of U3O8 over 22 year mine life),
- Shea Creek (largest undeveloped uranium deposit and third largest deposit in the basin), and
- Patterson Lake South deposit (highest grade x thickness intersections in the basin to date)
Figure 1: Rea Project location map
Reference to the other Company’s projects are not necessarily indicative of future exploration results at the Rea Project, which is at a very early stage of exploration.