CanAlaska has executed the first contract with Refined Energy of Edmonton, Alberta for a minimum 2,000 metres and a maximum of 3,500 metres of diamond drilling. The drill contract covers two programs of drilling, one at the Collins Bay Extension project, where the company is following up on historical uranium intercepts in drill holes.
The second drilling will follow at the Fond Du Lac project, where the company will be following up on the summer 2009 season drill intercept in hole FDL017 of 40.4 metres averaging 0.32% U(3)O(8).
In July, 2009, the company had acquired the Collins Bay Extension property from a third party. The property is immediately adjacent to the current-producing underground Eagle Point mine and the past-producing open pit mines of Collins Bay and Rabbit Lake, operated by Cameco Corporation and its predecessors.
In September, 2009, CanAlaska’s field crews had mapped and sampled uranium mineralization in the Fife Island area located north of the Eagle Point mine and along the same geological trend, in preparation for the winter drill program.
CanAlaska’s immediate interest is to drill-test the uranium mineralization intersected in historical (1984) Minatco drill holes MWLD8 to MWLD13. The best of these holes intersected 0.152% U(3)O(8) over four metres (over three pounds per ton U(3)O(8)), along an offset structure on the northern part of Fife Island, in an area designated as the Vic Zone.
The drill target is at shallow depth (110 metres) and will be tested with at least five holes adjacent and below the intersection. Additional drill holes are planned for the on-strike extension of the structural splay.
The company said that the Fond Du Lac exploration program will commence in January, 2010 and will focus on the shallow target in the vicinity of drill hole FDL017, which intercepted 40.2 metres assaying an average 0.32% U(3)O(8). This hole was drilled in late August, 2009.
Mineralogical studies, geophysical interpretations and geological modeling indicate that the historical uranium deposit at Fond Du Lac may be a re-mobilized event, and that the mineralization in the basement rocks drilled in hole FDL017 is a probable source for the sandstone-hosted deposit.
The structures which host the uranium mineralization appear to be controlled by the fault splays and dislocation caused by cross cutting open faults and mylonitic fault zones associated with the regional Grease River fault system.
The trend of the main fault offsets radiating from the mineralized zones at Fond Du Lac, and intercepted in both drill holes FDL 017 and FDL 020, will be tested on a close-spaced pattern. Additional drilling will also be carried out in the vicinity of the uranium deposit and a nearby mineralized boulder train in an attempt to locate further mineralized pods and basement faults.
In these areas, the depth to the unconformity is less than 50mts. This shallow depth has allowed clear geophysical modeling (IP resistivity, gravity and airborne EM), and will enable the testing of specific targets with various short drill holes.
