IsoEnergy plans 10,000-metre drill program at Larocque East

Following up on two successful drill programs this year at its Larocque East uranium property in Saskatchewan's eastern Athabasca Basin, IsoEnergy is planning a 10,000-metre drill program to start in January.

The 24-hole program will include expansion and infill drilling of the high-grade Hurricane zone at the property, as well as exploration drilling and should be completed in March.

"The upcoming winter drilling program should be very exciting and will satisfy three key objectives,” said Steve Blower, IsoEnergy's vice-president of exploration, in a release. “The expansion drill holes will evaluate high priority areas where the Hurricane zone can grow. Infill drilling will provide valuable orebody knowledge, and exploration drilling will test our highest priority targets well to the east of Hurricane."

As part of the program, nine exploration holes are planned to test the Larocque conductor trend east of previous drilling.

The program is fully funded – IsoEnergy has $11.2 million in cash, and also recently announced a $4-million flow-through financing (upsized from $3 million), expected to close on Dec. 22. However, the start of the drill program is subject to direction from the Saskatchewan Public Health Authority, which currently has advised against travel to or within the province's north.

This year's drilling, which totalled 48 holes, expanded the Hurricane zone's footprint and also revealed a large zone of “intense mineralization” on the western side of the zone.

Drill highlights from early 2020 include: 10.5 metres of 11.7% U₃O₈ including 3 metres of 40.5% U₃O₈ in hole 53; and 7.5 metres of 22.7% U₃O₈, including 2.5 metres of 67.2% U₃O₈ in hole 52.

The summer/fall drill campaign, which focused on the southern expansion of the western side of the Hurricane zone returned highlights including: 7.5 metres of 38.8% U₃O₈, including 3.5 metres of 74% U₃O₈ in hole 76, and 5 metres of 48.8% U₃O₈ U₃O₈ in hole 64.

Discovered in mid-2018, the Hurricane zone now extends for 575 km along strike, is up to 75 metres wide and up to 11 metres thick. It is open for expansion to the east, north and south in some sections.

The 158.8-sq.-km Laroque East property is located 35 km northwest of Orano Canada's McClean Lake mine and mill. The project covers a 15-km-long northeast extension of the Larocque Lake conductor system, a trend of graphitic metasedimentary basement rocks associated with significant uranium mineralization at Hurricane.

For more information, visit www.isoenergy.ca.