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Hornby Bay Basin
Mountain Lake Project
Dismal Lake Project
Kendall River Property
Athabasca Basin
Athabasca Overview
Pasfield Lake Project
Stony Road Project
Mann Lake Project
West Carswell Project
Wollaston NE Project
Riverlake/Highrock
Alaska
Boulder Creek Project
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The Athabasca Basin, occurring mostly in northern Saskatchewan, is the world's premier district for high grade uranium deposits, with a number of world class uranium mines which account for nearly one third of global production, characterized by extremely high grades, with well developed infrastructure in the region, and favourable permitting for development. Mann Lake Project Location The Mann Lake Property is located in the eastern Athabasca Basin in northwestern Saskatchewan. It is approximately 25 km southwest of the McArthur River Mine, the largest high-grade uranium deposit in the world. It is 15 kilometres to the northeast along-strike of Cameco's recently discovered Millennium deposit (drill-indicated resource as of Dec. 31, 2005 of 449,000 tonnes uranium at 4.63% U308; Cameco Corporation, 2006 CIM Uranium Field Conference, Program with Abstracts). Size The property consists of one mineral claim which covers 3,473 hectares. Ownership The property is a joint venture with Consolidated Abaddon Resources. Triex earned a 60% joint venture interest in the property by incurring $2,500,000 of exploration expenditures on the property, and a cash payments totaling $100,000. Triex is the Operator for the Joint Venture. Exploration Budget Approximately $ 2.9 million dollars have been spent on the property to date, including airborne geophysical surveys in 2005, ground geophysics in 2006, and two first-pass drill programs to test primary drill targets in 2006 and in the 2007-2008 winter drill season. 2008 Winter Drill Program A four-hole, 3,000 metre drill program was planned for the 2007-2008 winter drill season. It began in November, 2007, stopped in mid-December, and re-continued for in mid-March for completion in mid April. Difficult ground and the end of the winter drill season precluded completing all four holes. In all, three holes from two sites were completed for a total of 1,877 metres. The principal area yet to be drill-tested (the fouth hole planned for the program) is immediately south and west of the camp. Depth to unconformity encountered in this program was in the 600 metre range, consistent with the previous drill program. The first hole of the three hole program was on a conductor target north of the base camp, on a target not tested during the 2006 program. The second two holes (two collars from same site) tested a fixed-loop EM conductor that occurs on the east-west structure that transects the Mann Lake property. Holes completed in 2006, MN06-002 and MN06-005, intersected elevated boron and intensely and clay-altered Athabasca Group sandstone farther to the east along this structure. No significant zones of radioactivity, or alteration, were discovered in the two holes completed for the 2007-2008 winter drill program. The main target left to be tested is south and west of the camp, at the western end of the cross-cutting structure on which intense clay alteration was discovered in the 2006 drill hole MN06-002. 2006 Exploration Summary October • A $1.2 million first-phase drilling program was completed in September-October, 2006, contracted to Hy-Tech Drilling Ttd., Smithers, B.C. • Five holes were completed for a total of 3,510 metres • All holes were probed with a Mount Sopris 2PGA-1000 poly-gamma probe. PIMA II spectral data were collected systematically from drill core to evaluate clay alteration minerals. A total of 470 samples were collected for geochemistry and processed at the Saskatchewan Research Council. All geochemical results have been received. • All holes were probed with a Mount Sopris 2PGA-1000 poly-gamma probe. PIMA II spectral data were collected systematically from drill core to evaluate clay alteration minerals. A total of 470 samples were collected for geochemistry and processed at the Saskatchewan Research Council. All geochemical results have been received. • All targets are based on an integration of clay alteration and uranium and boron anomalies from surface boulders (Assessment Report data), discreet northerly trending conductors, sharp magnetic contacts, resistivity changes in Athabasca Group sandstone, and structural features. Results were positive and follow-up drilling is warranted. There is pervasive illite clay alteration over 90 metres of sandstone immediately above the unconformity in Hole MN06-002. There is a 4.5 metre wide zone of anomalous boron (up to 1,758 ppm boron) in sandstone immediately above the unconformity in Hole MN06-005. Both drill holes are located near an east-west fault which is evident on gravity surveys and truncates and offsets the regional, northeasterly grain of magnetic features and lineaments. Basement rocks in both drill holes were predominantly Archean granite gneiss. Panels of Wollaston Group metapelitic gneiss are the target of follow-up drill programs, in conjunction with alteration zones and geochemical anomalies along prospective structures. September Additional geophysical and remotely sensed data sets have been acquired from the public and private domain and integrated into the Company's existing project GIS database in order to facilitate a detailed lineament analysis focused on the potential for structurally controlled uranium. Senior researchers at the Saskatchewan Research Council co-ordinated the study. Five integrated target areas were identified for drill testing, based on structure, magnetic features, and geochemistry. May A 670 line-kilometre helicopter-borne V-TEM survey (magnetics and EM) was completed by Geotech Ltd. of Aurora, Ontario. January A winter ground geophysics program, designed to better define conductors and structural features, was completed in January, 2006. Surveys were done both parallel to, and orthogonal to, the B1 conductor trend. The winter geophysical camp was established on the eastern shore of Marean Lake by Patterson Geophysics Inc. of La Ronge, Saskatchewan. Three, five-kilometre long profiles of moving-loop, time-domain EM. MWH Geo-Surveys of Salmon Arm, B.C., mobilized a gravity survey crew to the camp in January 2006 and measured approximately 1,100 stations on 12 lines totaling approximately 52 line kilometres. Regional and Property Geology The Paleoproterozoic Trans-Hudson Orogen (THO) extends in a broad arc across the exposed shield in northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and is recognized as a major component in the assembly of the North American continent. The THO resulted from the convergence (circa 1.8 Ga) of the Rae-Hearne-Slave Paleoproterozoic/Archean platform and the Archean Superior and Sask cratons, with associated subduction, accretion and collisional deformation. Four basement lithostructural sub-domains are identified in this region; from west to east, they are: the Mudjatik Domain, the Wollaston-Mudjatik Transition Zone, the western Wollaston Domain and the eastern Wollaston Domain. The basement rocks which underlie the Property are part of the Wollaston-Mudjatik Transition Zone. The Wollaston Domain is a 60 km wide, northeast-trending, fold-thrust belt, where predominant Paleoproterozoic supracrustal gneisses mantle doubly-plunging Archean-age granitic domes. Further west, the Mudjatik Domain is characterized by arcuate supracrustal nappe lobe keels in a predominantly Archean granitic terrain, which together define a dome-and-basin interference pattern. Structures, particularly the northeast-oriented strike slip faults, tend to be localized along panels of graphitic metapelite of the Wollaston Group. Faults also tend to be localized at the margins of rigid basement units such as Archean granites and Paleoproterozoic quartzites. Fault movements, particularly strike-slip movements, enhance the electrical conductivity of graphitic horizons. Reactivated basement structures also provide enhanced permeability in the basement and overlying sandstones which facilitate fluid flow. As such, graphitic basement conductors are commonly targets for unconformity-type uranium mineralization. Basal and near-basal Paleoproterozoic conductor horizons which are proximal to Archean granite bodies are considered the most prospective for uranium deposits. The Mesoproterozoic age Athabasca Group is an undeformed sequence of clastic rocks which overlies a portion of the Rae and Hearne Provinces on the northwestern flank of the THO. The Athabasca Basin is the current erosional remnant of that group, and covers a region extending some 425 km east-west by 220 km north-south in size. The Athabasca Group is composed largely of sandstones which are predominantly mature quartz arenites of fluvial origin, and was originally subdivided into eight formations. The Athabasca Group is generally flat-lying, undeformed and unmetamorphosed. The maximum sandstone thickness is some 1500 m in the centre of the Basin. A generally accepted age for the Athabasca Group is 1.76 Ga. The base of the Athabasca Group is marked by a prominent unconformity which characteristically overlies a well-formed paleoweathering profile which can extend for several tens of metres into the underlying crystalline basement rocks. The basement of the eastern portion of the Basin consists of reworked Archean orthogneisses and the highly deformed, supracrustal, Paleoproterozoic Wollaston Supergroup. The property is located 45 km to 50 km inside the southeastern rim of the Athabasca Basin and is underlain by Athabasca Group sandstones which are approximately 600 m thick. Regional mapping indicates that the property is directly underlain by the MFd Member. Historical drill holes on EM conductors in the region generally intersect graphitic metapelite units of the middle sequence the Wollaston Supergroup. In the Wollaston-Mudjatik boundary zone setting, where the Property lies, aeromagnetic highs are nearly always indicative of Archean basement granite bodies, although some Wollaston Supergroup iron formations have been noted farther southeast (Martin Lake area), and magnetic upper Wollaston Supergroup units could possibly be present. Overall, the property is at the northern end of a 20 km long by 3 km wide, north-northeast-trending magnetic high which almost certainly represents one or more Archean basement granite bodies. Some magnetic variations within the mag-high trend are thought to be caused by cross-cutting structures. Portions of the property, particularly the eastern portion, could be underlain by a wedge of non-magnetic metasedimentary rocks mantling granitic basement. Exploration History The Mann Lake Property is within the corridor of uranium deposits in the eastern part of the Athabasca Basin which supplies one third of the worlds primary uranium supply. It is approximately 25 kilometres southwest of the McArthur River Mine, the largest high-grade uranium deposit in the world. The Mann Lake property is at the northeasterly end of the B1 conductor, along which Cameco Corporation's Millennium Deposit is located approximately 15 kilometres to the southwest. No prior drilling has been reported within the property outline, although a considerable amount of drilling has been conducted on conductors on adjacent claims. Recent work includes: • A ground-based TEM survey of four east-west lines was completed in 1999. Four weak conductors were defined at Marean Lake. • Two northwest-southeast lines of gravity were completed in 2005 and define a gravity contrast boundary zone which is orthogonal to the regional grain of conductors; the boundary is possibly an offsetting structure. The region between McArthur River and Cree Lake at the southern margin of the basin has been, and continues to be, extensively explored. In 1977, the Mann Lake property was staked by SMDC as part of the Cree Extension Project. This was operated by SMDC as a joint venture with Umetco Minerals Corp. (formerly Union Carbide). SMDC (later Cameco) conducted exploration work on the Cree Extension project almost continuously (except for a hiatus from 1982 to 1985) with various joint venture partners until 1989 when Uranerz Exploration and Mining Ltd. became operator. In 1998 Cameco acquired Uranerz and resumed operatorship of the project, which continues to be active with current joint venture partners Cogema and JCU (Canada) Exploration Co., Ltd. From 1977 to 1989, exploration within the Cree Extension Project included various airborne and ground geophysical surveys, geochemical surveys including composite boulder sampling, and prospecting. Up to 1989, SMDC/Cameco had traced northeast- to north-northeast-trending basement conductors to the east and west of the Property and had drilled a total of 20 holes. Of particular interest was the B1 conductor, which was traced for some 15 kilometres to the southwest, starting from the western part of the Property. Other than regional surveys, no significant exploration work was conducted by the Cree Extension Project within the present Mann Lake property outline. A regional hydrothermal corridor for illite, dravite (boron) and chlorite alteration minerals was defined in the mid 1990's based on analysis of thousands of samples of drill core and surface boulders for the Cree Extension project. The Mann Lake Property is within the core of that corridor. The significant discovery by Dennison Mines in 2009 called Wheeler River is in the southern part of the corridor. The Mann Lake property was re-staked in 1996 when Phelps Dodge Corporation. They conducted a composite boulder lithogeochemical survey in 1997 which indicted widespread illite enrichment and sporadic, weakly elevated uranium values, but with no distinguishable anomaly trends. The property was later optioned by Uranium Power Corporation and Pacific Amber Resources Ltd., who in 1999 conducted a reconnaissance fixed loop TEM survey consisting of 25.3 km of TEM profiles on 4 widely spaced lines. This survey detected 4 weak anomalies which were thought to indicate possible basement conductors. In late 2002 Cameco announced the discovery of the Millennium Zone (Figure 4) which is located approximately 10 km to the southwest of the Property, along the B1 conductor trend. Uranium mineralization occurs in basement rocks under some 600 m of Athabasca Group sandstone cover. An intersection of 30.3 m averaging 4.28% U3O8 has been reported (Saskatchewan Geological Survey, 2003). As of December 2005, Cameco listed an indicated resource for the Millennium Zone of 45.8 million pounds U3O8 at a grade of 4.63% U3O8 (Cameco 2005 Annual Report). The Millennium Zone mineralization lies predominantly between 50 m and 250 m below the sub-Athabasca unconformity. |
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