In keeping with its exploration growth plans, Premier American Uranium Inc. announced targets for its flagship Cebolleta Project (Cebolleta, or the “Project”), which is situated in the Grants Mineral Belt in New Mexico.
“Brownfields” and “greenfields” exploration targets within the Project area. Note the Jackpile Mine pit boundary is at the southern limit of the property and the Company believes there is good potential to extend this mineralization onto the Project area. On the eastern side of the Project area, the Piedra Lumbre prospect is a “greenfields” target that has the potential for hosting mineralization in the underlying Westwater Canyon Member of the Morrison Formation. Image Credit: Premier American Uranium
One of the world's greatest uranium endowments, hosted by sandstone, is the Jackpile-Paguate trend. This trend extends northward to uranium mineralization at PUR's Cebolleta project.
Geologists from the US Department of Energy and the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources have reported that between 1951 and 1983, the mines in the Laguna mining district generated about 100 million pounds of U3O8 from the Jackpile-Paguate trend.
Although the extent of the mineralization is not entirely known, the northern continuation of the Jackpile-Paguate trend of uranium deposits onto the southern portion of the Cebolleta project property is well established. It presents the company with several significant potential growth and exploration opportunities.
At Cebolleta, the company has identified several focus areas, including:
- Untested locations have recognized mineralized zones but have not yet fully drilled.
- There is potential for known deposits to expand into open-ended, mineralized zones inside the Jackpile sandstone that extend beyond the boundaries of the current drilling grid.
- The Westwater Canyon Member of the Morrison Formation, the main host of the abundant uranium deposits of the Grants Mineral Belt, is the location of mineralization at the Piedra Lumbre prospect.
As drilling has begun in Wyoming to unlock the potential opportunity to discover another ISR amenable deposit in close proximity to Ur-Energy’s Lost Creek uranium mine and processing facility and not far from Rio Tinto’s Sweetwater Mill, our technical team is undertaking the next steps required to expand shareholder value at Cebolleta in New Mexico.
Colin Healey, Chief Executive Officer, Premier American Uranium Inc.
Healey said, “We are currently designing programs with the goal of unlocking growth potential as we advance toward preliminary economic and technical studies at the Cebolleta Project. We look forward to providing more detailed plans for exploration and advancement at this rapidly evolving flagship project in the near future.”
Brownfield Exploration Targets at Cebolleta
In the Jackpile Sandstone near historically characterized mineralization at St. Anthony and L-Bar (Ohio) sections of the Project, the Company has found several significant brownfield prospects that have either not been tested or have had very little historical drilling.
- The northern portion of the Jackpile open pit mine marks the southern boundary of the St. Anthony region. During reconnaissance-scale exploration drilling, a previous project operator found mineralization in multiple holes at the northern boundary of the Jackpile open pit.
- The Company thinks there is a chance for more uranium mineralization in the southern boundary zone of the property, which might have a tenor comparable to that of the neighboring Jackpile mine.
- The “Link” target is located in an area with limited historical drilling along the major trend that defines the mineralized system on the Project, close to the area of American Future Fuel Corporation's Phase I confirmation drill program, which was completed in 2023, and along the northern flank of the St. Anthony north pit.
- According to the Company, the Link target may increase the Project's known mineralization. Furthermore, because the “South Pit Extension” target is located between areas of clearly defined mineralization, it is thought to have good potential to house further mineralization.
- However, the target has largely remained undrilled because of an isolated topographic high. The UNC-developed Willie P underground mine, a portion of the St. Anthony mine, is noteworthy.
- Notably, the current mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the Cebolleta Project in New Mexico, prepared in compliance with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, is thought.
- To exclude residual mineralization from the Willie P underground mine, developed by UNC as part of the St. Anthony mine complex, where 1.6 million pounds of uranium were mined from 1975 to 1979, the company has started gathering and examining previously unobtainable data.
- Targets have been located in the north and south Sohio target areas of the Project “brownfields” at L-Bar (Sohio), right next to known mineralization. According to the company, a smaller, continuous mineralized body may be defined in the central target region by connecting the isolated pods of mineralization defined by infrequent historical drilling.
Greenfields Exploration Targets at Cebolleta – Potential for New Discovery
At the Piedra Lumbre prospect on the eastern margin of the project, historical drilling discovered uranium mineralization within the sandstones of the Westwater Canyon, located 300 feet below the Jackpile Sandstone. The extent of mineralization at Piedra Lumbre remains largely untested, presenting an opportunity to potentially identify new greenfield mineralized areas.
About the Cebolleta Project
Cebolleta is an advanced uranium exploration project with an April 2024 Technical Report indicating Indicated Resources of 18.6 million pounds of U3O8 (6.6 million tons at 0.14% U3O8). The Inferred Resources are estimated to contain 4.9 million pounds of U3O8 (2.6 million tons at 0.10% U3O8).