Strongly Anomalous Radon Results Received From MPVC NW Manitoba Project
08.04.2014 | CNW
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Radon Survey Result Highlights
The radon survey was undertaken using 3,550 cups from AlphaTrack Services Ltd every 25m along lines spaced 200m apart covering a 3 x 10km area. This is one of 7 anomalous areas within the project previously outlined by CanAlaska. This radon survey has defined a number of distinct anomalies:
- Long linear trends, with strike lengths in some cases over 4km and approximately 100 to 200 meters wide. These anomalies appear to be conformable to the other geophysical anomalies, such as the VTEM and aeromagnetic data.
- Areas (approximately 400 by 800 meters) of significantly elevated radon flux (in excess of three times background). A number of these are coincident with known gravity lows and resistivity lows previously identified at Maguire Lake. The largest anomalous zone outlined is located on the southeast shore of Maguire lake in an area previously not known to be mineralized. Values in this new zone are typically 3 to 4 times background with a high of 1484 T/mm2. (10 times background).
- Islands within Maguire Lake; one island in particular appears to exhibit noticeable elevated radon levels and this island has numerous mineralised boulders (up to 66% U3O8) on it as well as radioactive outcrops (up to 9.5% U3O8). Such mineralised outcrops are evident on two of the larger islands and both of these islands have elevated radon values.
Property Geology
This survey was conducted on a small portion of the 143,603 hectare project located along the Saskatchewan/Manitoba border. The licences are located along an extension of a trend which contains most of the significant uranium mines and deposits within Saskatchewan. An airborne VTEM survey of the licences defined a 35km long linear conductor traversing the project which is interpreted to reflect a graphitic unit which would be a strong reductant which is important for the formation of uranium mineralization. The project area is underlain by rocks of the lower Proterozoic-age Wollaston domain, comprising pelites, graphitic pelites and calc-silicates similar to those associated with the uraniferous unconformity zones found in Saskatchewan's Athabasca basin. A significant difference is that uranium mineralization outcrops within our project area rather than being deeply buried as is the case with many deposits in the basin.
Fundamentals of the Radon Technique
The use of radon gas detectors to identify uranium mineralization is well known and has been in use since the 1960's. As uranium decays daughter products are produced which include radon gas. Radon is itself radio-active with a half-life of 3.8 days and as it decays it emits alpha particles. As a gas Radon has much greater mobility than uranium and radium, which are essentially fixed as solid matter in rocks and soils. Radon migrates to the surface through fractures and pore spaces and the greater the porosity and degree of fracturing the further it can travel before the radon gas decays. Due to differences in the rate of radon gas travel, atmospheric effects and the ground water table radon results are qualitative rather than quantitative. The radon method has become a primary exploration tool in the Athabasca Basin and has successfully identified buried uranium occurrences in many geological environments including the recent Paterson Lake South (Fission Uranium Corp) discovery.
The AlphaTrack method uses alpha particle-sensitive film attached to the inside of a small plastic sample cup. When an alpha particle hits the film it leaves a "track". The cups are buried for approximately 30 days after which they are retrieved and returned to AlphaTrack Services Limited. The detectors are then processed and the number of "tracks" are recorded. The number of tracks counted per square millimetre (T/mm2) is proportional to the radon level in the hole in which the cup is placed. These results are normalized to 30 days exposure.
Maguire Lake Radon Results
In general, the AlphaTrack radon results from Maguire Lake have revealed a number of patterns that are consistent with the known geological and geophysical trends and mineralised outcrops. Many significant radon anomalies have been identified, some of these correspond to known geological features and some are new. The results are best evaluated in comparison to the background value, which at Maguire Lake is approximately 150 T/mm2. The individual cup readings varied from less than 10 T/mm2 up to 3,306 T/mm2. The distribution of results is shown in the table below:
Number of Detectors Times Background (greater
than 150 T/mm2
395 2x
130 3x
63 4x
30 5x
14 6x
8 7x
3 8x
3 9x
2 10x
1 22x
A number of radon trends observed are open ended both to the south-west and to the north-east as are the other geophysical trends (VTEM and aeromagnetics). Further work needs to be done to determine the nature and extent of these anomalies.
Summary Upcoming Work
The Company's geologic team is most encouraged by the distribution of radon, resistivity, magnetic and gravity anomalies which are prime drill targets for uranium mineralization.
The next stage in the Company's exploration program at Maguire Lake is to carry out a radon survey in the lake itself. Radonex Ltd. has been contracted to commence this survey immediately. Once completed this data together with the land-based AlphaTrack data will provide a radon flux map for the entire area.
A drill program is planned to commence at the end of April once the Radonex survey over Maguire lake is nearing completion. Drilling permits are in place and valid until July 2014.
The technical information and results reported here have been reviewed by Chad Ulansky, PGeol, a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, who is responsible for the technical content of this release.
Dr. Charles Fipke
Consultant Geologist