Triex Minerals Corporation - Dismal Lake Project

Hornby Bay Basin Mountain Lake Project Dismal Lake Project Kendall River Property Athabasca Basin Pasfield Lake Project Stony Road Project Mann Lake Project West Carswell Project Wollaston NE Project Riverlake/Highrock Alaska Boulder Creek Project

HORNBY BASIN PROPERTIES

Hornby Bay Basin

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Mountain Lake Targets

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Dismal Lakes Geology

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Triex Minerals Corp. operates four projects in the Hornby Bay Basin, one of the three Paleoproteroic basins in Canda with proven uranium potential (cf. Athabasca Basin and Thelon Basin). The Hornby Bay Basin straddles the Nunavut/NWT border in northwestern Canada. Triex explores the basin through a 50:50 Joint Venture Agreement with Pitchstone Exploration Ltd. Triex is Operator. In 2005, holdings initially covered more than 200,000 hectares in 5 main properties, but have been reduced by active exploration and prioritization of targets over 4 years. Going forward from 2009, the three core properties are Mountain Lake, Dismal Lakes and Kendall River, which currently cover 51,210 hectares in 56 claims.

The Mountain Lake uranium deposit anchors the property holdings. It is the only defined uranium resource in the basin. The deposit has an inferred resource of 8.2 million pounds U3O8 (3,700 tonnes U3O8) in 1.6 million tones of rock, with an average grade of 0.23 percent U3O8 using a cut-off grade of 0.10 percent U3O8 and a minimum thickness of 1.0 metre (CIM guidelines and definitions).

The objective of the Joint Venture is to fully delineate the Mountain Lake uranium deposit, and discover additional potential deposits in the region.

Latest News

Aug 28, 2008: Summer Drill Program for 2008 Completed in the Hornby Bay Basin

Location

The Mountain Lake deposit is located approximately 100 km southwest of the coastal community of Kugluktuk (formerly Coppermine), in northwestern Nunavut. It is approximately 550 km north of Yellowknife, NWT. The Dismal Lakes claims are approximately 45 kilometres to the northwest of the Mountain Lake deposit.

Size

The Dismal Lake Property consists of 21 claims covering 18,185 hectares.

Ownership

Triex is the Operator for a 50/50 Joint Venture Agreement with partner Pitchstone Exploration Ltd. ("Pitchstone"). The Joint Venture currently controls four properties in the Hornby Bay Basin, covering some 63,751 hectares in 68 claims within four separate blocks. The blocks are: Mountain Lake, including the Mountain Lake uranium deposit; Dismal Lake; Sandy Creek (Dismal Lake West) and; Kendall River. Sandy Creek is not active.

Title to the properties is held by a combination of directly staking claims and acquiring prospecting permits, and indirectly through several Option to Purchase Agreements with third parties. The Joint Venture holds 100% of the eight claims which cover the Mountain Lake deposit and immediately surrounding area, clear and free of any obligations, and the Sandy Creek Claims. Claims peripheral to the core Mountain Lake Block, and claim blocks at Dismal Lake and Kendall River are owned 100% by the Joint Venture, subject to production royalties to the vendors, subsequent to satisfying work commitments specified in the Option-to-Purchase Agreements for these properties. The Joint Venture has buy-down provisions for 50% of the production royalties attached to the Kendall River, Dismal Lake and peripheral Mountain Lake claims.

2008 Exploration Program

The approved budget for the 2008 summer exploration program in the Hornby Bay Basin was $3.1 million. The program mobilized in mid-April, and drilling was complete by July 28, 2008. The base camp on Kirwan Lake, near the Mountain Lake deposit, was used for the third consecutive year.

The $3.1 million dollar work plan and budget was mostly for drilling, but also included extensions to the Ohm-Mapper ground resistivity surveys completed in 2007. A total of 716 line-kilometres of Ohm-Mapper surveys were completed on three grids, one in the Helmut Fault area on the Mountain Lake property, and one on the Dismal Lake property and one at Kendall River. This work included approximately 140 line-km over the Dismal Lake property. A total of 3,172 metres of drilling was completed in 13 drill holes: 1,540 metres on the Mountain Lake property (three holes in the Helmut Fault area and four holes on the Jenny Lake target); 751 metres in three holes on the Dismal Lake property, and; 762 metres in three holes on the Kendall River property.

The 2008 drilling on the Dismal Lake property tested the area in between the "east target" and "west target" tested in 2007. The area tested in 2008 covers an area of fault offset of Unit 11 sandstone, the target interval which hosts the Mountain Lake deposit itself. Overall, the area is approximately 4 kilometres to the east of the large field of radioactive boulders discovered in the 1970's. Three drill holes were attempted in this area in 1979, but none were completed to sufficient depth. Specific locations for the 2008 holes were were developed using airborne radiometric surveys, ground magnetic and resistivity (Ohm Mapper) surveys, and prospecting and soil surveys completed in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Holes were completed on either side of the main, northeasterly trending structure. Target stratigraphy was intersected in all three holes, but no zones of significant and/or continuous radioactivity were encountered.

Delineation drilling was completed on the Mountain Lake uranium deposit itself in 2006 and 2007, and first-pass drilling has been completed over the most obvious targets at Dismal Lake and Kendall River in 2007 and 2008. Further drilling is not immediately justified, however, additional low-cost surface could be considered to more fully evaluate surface radioactive boulder fields, soil anomalies, and prospective structures and stratigraphic intervals, in the search for additional buried deposits in the basin, mostly to the west of Mountain Lake, but also to the southwest and northeast, and including a complete fleshing out of the Dismal Lake and Kendall River boulder anomalies.

2007 Exploration Program

The total cost of the 2007 exploration program carried out on the collective Hornby Bay Basin properties from May to September 2007 was approximately$2.4 million, mostly for drilling. Work on the Mountain Lake property itself included:

Three diamond drill holes, totalling 477 metres, at the northern end of the Mountain Lake uranium deposit.
Boulder prospecting and soil sampling on reconnaissance-based lines: 1,890 soil samples collected.
Ohm Mapper ground resistivity survey totalling 70 line-kilometres.
Preliminary baseline environmental studies, including aquatic studies (water quality, fisheries, and hydrology), and a wildlife survey.
Preliminary uranium extraction study (metallurgy) on a mini bulk sample comprised of a 27 metre, continuously mineralized composite core sample from the heart of the Mountain Lake uranium deposit

Both surface work and diamond drilling were completed on the Dismal Lake property. Surface work on the Dismal Lake property included grid-based soil sampling and OHM Mapper resistivity surveys. A total of 943 soil samples were collected from the grid, on 50 metre stations and 200 metre spaced lines. A total of 140 line kilometres of OHM Mapper resistivity surveys were completed on the same grid. First pass drill testing was completed on both the "east" and "west targets". Five holes were completed on the "west" target for 1,401 metres, and three holes were completed on the east target for 940 metres. Target stratigraphy was intersected in all three holes, but no zones of significant and/or continuous radioactivity were encountered.

2006 Exploration Program

The 2006 exploration program for the collective Hornby Bay Basin properties had a budget of $2.1 million, mostly for drilling. The program mobilized in the first week of April, and drilling was complete by June 12, 2006. Twenty diamond drill holes were completed for a total of 3,101 m, all on the Mountain Lake deposit itself. Key objectives of the 2006 summer drill program were:

Better understand the axis of higher grade material along the center of the deposit;
100 line-km of ground magnetics (200 m spaced lines x 25m spaced stations)
drill test areas under lakes for which there is no historic data;
16 rock samples
determine the total geological resource for the deposit by fully delineating lower grade envelopes around the deposit, and;
test for separate, new deposits to the west and north of Mountain Lake.

A four week surface reconnaissance exploration program with a total budget of approximately $400,000 was completed in August, 2006, based out of the Kirwan Lake camp following completion of the spring drill program which was focused on the Mountain Lake deposit itself. The reconnaissance work covered the Kendall River and Dismal Lake properties, and the peripheral holdings around the Mountain Lake deposit. Work on the Dismal Lake property itself included:

730 line-km of airborne radiometrics at 200 metre line spacing, covering the entire property.
106 line-km of ground magnetics, at 200 metre line spacing and 50 m stations, covering the entire property.
473 soil samples, on the same grid as the ground magnetics, covering the entire property at 200 metre line spacing and 50 m stations.

Prospecting and mapping of the radioactive boulder field was also done. Seventeen new samples were collected, with uranium contents up to 0.35% U308.

2005 Exploration Program

The Joint Venture conducted it's first exploration program on it's collective Hornby Bay Basin properties during the summer of 2005. The budget was approximately $1.2 million dollars. Work done at the Mountain Lake deposit was based out of the nearby community of Kugluktuk, while concurrently a four week flycamp was established at Sandy Creek for work on the Dismal Lake West property (also called Sandy Creek property). Work commenced on August 1, 2005, and was completed by August 28th. Work on the Mountain Lake property itself included:

684 line-kilometre MEGATEM II survey, conducted by Fugro Airborne Surveys at 150-metre line spacing. This survey was designed to identify lithologic and structural characteristics of the Mountain Lake uranium deposit.
2,000 line-km GEOTEM survey (time domain electromagnetic and magnetic survey) at 300m-line spacing, completed by Fugro Airborne Surveys Ltd. in 2005 for UR-Energy Inc. covering claims surrounding the core block of claims over the Mountain Lake deposit itself.
Follow-up ground geophysical test surveys. Approximately 40 line-kilometres. Tests included magnetic surveys, DC resistivity surveys, and MAX-MIN and PROTEM electromagnetic surveys, frequency and time domain respectively.
Historic drill core from Imperial Oil projects was rehabilitated and selected holes were re-logged and sampled for geochemical and alteration signatures.

Work on the Dismal Lake property in 2005 included an airborne magnetic and EM survey, GEOTEM, of approximately 1,092 line kilometres, flown along north-south lines spaced 300 m apart. This survey was completed prior to the 2006 purchase of the property by the Triex-Pitchstone Joint Venture.

Exploration History

A regional airborne radiometric survey by the Geological Survey of Canada over the Hornby Bay Basin in the late 1960's generated numerous anomalies that triggered the first wave of exploration in the region. The Mountain Lake Property was originally held and explored by Aquitaine of Canada Limited and Imperial Oil Limited from 1969 to 1980. Drilling began in 1975 and the Mountain Lake deposit was discovered in 1976. Some 190 percussion and diamond drill holes totaling 22,000 metres were completed.

Between 1974 to 1981, BP Minerals and Esso Minerals conducted extensive regional exploration programs in the search for additional mineral deposits. Early work included reconnaissance-style lake sediment geochemical surveys, mapping, prospecting and lithogeochemistry. INPUT-EM and radiometric surveys were also flown. Targets were advanced on numerous properties using ground-based VLF-EM and magnetic surveys. Detailed prospecting and mapping of boulder fields, scintillometer mapping, soil sampling, and track-etch surveys helped to define early-stage drill targets. More than 25 drill holes related to this seven-year period of regional exploration are in the government assessment record.

NI43-101 Reports

In 2005, a National Instrument 43-101 compliant technical report was completed by an independent and Qualified Person, Frank Hassard, P.Eng. The report was based on a detailed synthesis and analysis of all available historic geological data on the deposit, from both the public and private domains. Salient features of the Mountain Lake deposit highlighted in the report include:

8.2 million pounds U3O8 (3,700 tonnes U3O8) inferred resource in 1.6 million tonnes, with an average grade of 0.23 percent U3O8 using a cut-off grade of 0.10 percent U3O8 and a minimum thickness of 1.0 metre (CIM guidelines and definitions);
stratabound, sandstone hosted uranium deposit, tabular in shape, with minor high-grade fracture controlled mineralization
stratabound grades averaging 0.1-0.3 percent U3O8 with local concentrations of 1.23 percent U3O8 over 1.9 metres;
fracture controlled mineralization up to 5.19 percent U3O8 over narrow widths (less than one metre);
minor amounts of copper, nickel, cobalt and silver;
deposit approximately 1.3 kilometres long and up to 320 metres wide;
mineralization at depths from 28 metres up to 136 metres below surface;
gently dipping mineralization (less than five degrees);
several areas within the Mountain Lake property remain untested; and
potential for higher grade, fracture controlled mineralization (not yet tested).

The completion of this NI 43-101 compliant report, including the calculation of an inferred uranium resource, adds significant underlying value to the Mountain Lake Project. Updated Technical Reports which include drilling done subsequent to the original 2005 report, are filed on SEDAR and listed below:

Mountain Lake Property Technical Report October 9, 2007 (PDF)

Mountain Lake Property Technical Report February 15, 2005 (PDF)

Regional Geology

The project area is covered by a relatively thin blanket of till. The region was glaciated by the Laurentide ice sheet, a major component of the last continental ice sheet covering North America some 12,000 years ago. Glacial features observed in the Dismal Lakes project area include heavily striated outcrop, ice-transported erratic boulders, prominent flutings, drumlinoid ridges, hummocky disintegration moraines, local glaciolacustrine deposits with remnant shorelines, and various esker systems. Ice flow directions include: northwest in the Kendall River area; a west to northwest flow direction in the Mountain Lake area; a west and a north flow direction in the Dismal Lakes area; and, a northward flow direction in the Sandy Creek area.

The Hornby Bay Basin lies within the Bear Structural Province of the Canadian Shield and has been divided into basement rocks of the Early Proterozoic Wopmay Orogen and the Early to Middle Proterozoic sediments and volcanics of the Coppermine Homocline.

The Early Proterozoic Wopmay Orogen consists of three tectonic units: the Epworth Basin; the Hepburn metamorphic-plutonic belt; and the Great Bear Batholith and associated volcanics. The easternmost and oldest is the Epworth Basin, which comprises miogeoclinal and eugeoclinal volcanic and sedimentary rocks of Epworth Group. The Hepburn metamorphic-plutonic belt comprises metamorphosed and migmatized Epworth Group strata and foliated granitic intrusives. The westernmost and youngest is the Great Bear Magmatic Zone, which comprises subvolcanic and volcanic rocks of Mactavish Supergroup, which are intruded by comagmatic, high-level granite to granodiorite plutons. Early Proterozoic basement ranges in age from 1,875 to 1,840 Ma (Gandhi et al, 2001).

Prior to deposition of the Early Proterozoic sediments, rocks of the Wopmay Orogen were deformed and uplifted; plutons of the Great Bear Batholith were cut by northeasterly trending dextral strike-slip faults. Following uplift, Early Proterozoic basement rocks were chemically and mechanically weathered and eroded, and a regolith developed on eroded metamorphic, volcanic and plutonic units.

Early to Middle Proterozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Coppermine Homocline include the Hornby Bay Group, Dismal Lakes Group and Coppermine River Group. The Hornby Bay Group is a succession of dominantly fluvial sediments and minor shallow-water marine carbonates up to 1,400 m thick. Three major units are recognized. A basal rubble breccia and conglomerate unit grades upward into reddish, medium-grained sandstone locally up to 1,110 metrs thick. It is conformably overlain by up to 100 m of shallow marine, light grey, laminated dolomite and fine-grained dolomitic sediments, in turn conformably overlain by about 170 m of poorly exposed, continental, reddish siltstone, shale and sandstone, overlain by marine carbonates. Prior to deposition of the overlying Dismal Lakes Group, the Hornby Bay sedimentary rocks were uplifted, tilted, faulted and eroded. Chemical and mechanical weathering of Hornby Bay Group resulted in a thin regolith being developed locally.

The Dismal Lakes Group is a fluvial and shallow-water marine succession up to 1,100 m thick. The basal unit (10) is fluvial conglomerates and sandstones which locally cut down and erode into Hornby Bay Group sandstones to form an unconformity. Overlying Unit 11 quartzose sandstone hosts the Mountain Lake uranium deposit, and is extremely variable in thickness, ranging from 20 to 500 m thick depending on the underlying basement paleotopography. Basal members include conglomerate, grit and sandstone. Gradationally above the Unit 11 sandstone unit are black shale and siltstone interbedded with white to dark grey, quartzitic siltstone. Unit 13 of the group consists of reddish, shaley dolomite and dolomitic mudstones deposited in a shallow marine, mudflat environment. The upper unit of the group, Unit 13 is mostly stromatolitic dolomites up to 500 metres thick. Deposition of the Dismal Lakes Group ended with regional uplift but with little or no erosion. Some faults were likely reactivated during this period.

Coppermine River Group tholeiitic basalt flows (Unit 17; Copper Creek Formation) overlie in stark contrast the carbonates at the top of the Dismal Lakes groiup. There is little metamorphic effect. The accumulated thickness of the basalt flows and sills can exceed 3,000 m. The Muskox Complex (Units B to E) is a highly differentiated layered ultramafic body, and bounds rocks of the Hornby Bay Group to the east. Stratigraphic evidence suggests that the Muskox Complex was emplaced during upper Dismal Lakes Group sedimentation (Ross and Kerans, 1989) and may be of similar age to that of the Coppermine River Group mafic volcanic rocks, about 1,270 Ma (Hoffman and Hall, 1993).

Phanerozoic cover rocks unconformably overly the Coppermine River to the west.