Marvel Discovery Corp. is pleased to announce that it has signed a joint venture ("JV") agreement with Carmanah Minerals Corp., ("Carmanah") CARM to earn a 50% interest in the Walker Claims (the "Property") located in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan (Figure 1). By completion of the earn-in by Carmanah, Marvel and Carmanah would each own 50% of the project with Carmanah funding $1.5 million in exploration expenditures, paying $ 400,000 in cash payments and the issuance of 3.5 million shares and 3.5 million warrants.
" We are very pleased to have reached a Joint Venture agreement with Carmanah Minerals, after careful consideration this transaction made the most sense long-term for Marvel shareholders. This affords us the ability to work both the north and south claim blocks simultaneously, while further protecting our share capitalization. Marvel still holds a considerable area of influence and controls 100% of the KLR and Highway North Claims along the Key Lake Shear Zone which is home to some of the worlds highest grade uranium. This corridor represents tremendous opportunity in mimicking the success of basement-hosted uranium deposits found on the western side of the Basin like NexGen Energy's Arrow Deposit. We look forward to working with the team at Carmanah with the common goal of a Tier 1 Discovery." stated Chief Executive Officer Karim Rayani
The Walker and KLR Properties lie within the Wollaston-Mudjactic transition zone (WMTZ) of the eastern Athabasca basin, which is host to the highest-grade uranium mines in the world, including:
The WMTZ hosts the highest-grade uranium mines in the world including (Figure 1):
- Cigar Lake, 50% owned by Cameco, which hosts reserves of 221.6 million pounds (lbs.) of U3O8 at 16.7% U3O8
- McArthur River, 70% owned by Cameco which hosts reserves of 392 million lbs. of U3O8 at 6.91% U3O8
- Wheeler Project, 90% owned by Denison Mines which hosts reserves of 109 million lbs. of U3O8 in two deposits averaging 11.23% U3O8.
Regional Geology and Mineralization
In Saskatchewan, uranium deposits have been discovered at, above and up to 300 metres below the Athabasca group unconformity within basement rocks. Mineralization can occur hundreds of metres into the basement or can be up to 100 metres above in Athabasca group sandstone. Typically, uranium is present as uraninite/pitchblende that occurs as veins and semi-massive to massive replacement bodies.
Mineralization is also spatially associated with steeply dipping, graphitic basement structures and may have been remobilized during successive structural reactivation events. Such structures can be important fluid pathways as well as structural or chemical traps for mineralization as reactivation events have likely introduced further uranium into mineralized zones and provided a means for remobilization (Jefferson, et al. 2007) (Figure 2).
Marvel still controls 100% of the Highway North and KLR claims (Figure 3). These claim groups straddle the Key Lake fault zone, an important corridor for structurally controlled Athabasca-basin-type uranium deposits. The Arrow deposit4, owned by NexGen Energy, lies along a similar structural corridor as the Marvel properties. The Arrow deposit, which has undergone a positive feasibility study with robust economics contains probable reserves of 239.6 million pounds of U3O8 at an average of 2.37% U3O8 and measured and indicated resources of 256.7 million pounds at an average grade of 3.1% U3O8. The Arrow deposit is the largest undeveloped uranium deposit in Canada.
Qualified Person
Mike Kilbourne, P. Geo, an independent qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed, and approved the technical contents of this news release on behalf of the Company.