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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 worlds 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 a favourable permitting and development environment.
Location The property is located in eastern Athabasca Basin, approximately 60 kilometres northwest of the Cigar Lake Mine, the second largest high grade uranium deposit in the world. A 50 km winter road connects the property base camp on the northeast edge of Pasfield Lake to Highway 905. The Points North service hub and nearby uranium mine and mill facilities are 50 km to the southwest along the highway from the junction. Size The Property consists of 9 contiguous mineral claims covering a total area of 42,296 hectares Ownership Triex has earned an 82% undivided interest in the property from Thelon Ventures Ltd. Triex is the Operator for the project. Exploration Budget A $2,000,000 million dollar winter diamond drill program was completed on the property between January and April, 2009. Summer and winter exploration programs have been run in succession by the Joint Venture beginning in 2006, and approximately $6.3 million dollars have been spent on the Property to date. 2009 Exploration Program The 2009 winter drill program was on the Cable Bay shear zone east of Pasfield lake, an area never previously drilled during historic or recent exploration periods (see adjacent map). Two vertical holes were completed on the property, for a total of 2,116 metres. Hole PF09-007 intersected the unconformity at 906 m, the "regional" depth of basement based on historic drill holes northwest of the property. The second hole was not completed due to the end of the winter drill season. Although costly, the 2009 drill program was the first program in some 30 years of exploration at Pasfield to successfully complete a drill hole to the unconformity. Further, it was the first drill program to test the main trace of the Cable Bay Shear Zone east of the lake. Similar to the 2007 drill program, drilling costs at Pasfield were high during the 2009 winter drill program because of poor ground conditions, all-be-they prospective for uranium. In Drill Hole PF09-007, iron staining and spotted hematite alteration was throughout Athabasca Group sandstone (see adjacent photo). Strong radioactivity (5 times background, and up to 600 cps) was measured over an extensive width (40 metres) immediately above the unconformity. More than 20 metres of pervasive chlorite alteration in fault breccia was intersected in the basement below the unconformity. In Drill Hole PF09-008, quartz and siderite veins, veinlets and veinlet breccias were throughout Athabasca group sandstone cover (see adjacent photos). Drilling in 2009 confirmed the presence of the Cable Bay Shear Zone on the east side of Pasfield Lake. It also provided evidence for alteration along the main structure. Hydrothermal fluids are indicated by the presence of remobilized iron, in the form of a weak but extensive hematite dusting, or spotting, in sandstone, and scattered pyritic nodules centimeters in size. Local bleaching of sandstone from pink to white is also an indication of weak, but extensive clay alteration of the arenites. The wide zones immediately above the unconformity in drill hole PF09-007, and some 800 metres above the unconformity in drill hole PF09-008, have increased radioactivity and elevated uranium, boron and other key pathfinder elements. Together with the robust, multi-element soil anomaly that hole PF09-008 tested, these are an important indication of uranium-bearing hydrothermal fluids along the fault that forms the eastern arm of the Cable Bay shear zone. Follow Up Despite the amount of work done during the past three years, the Pasfield Lake property is still at an early stage in its exploration history in terms of the persistence recquired to discover a buried uranium deposit in the Athabasca Basin. Much more work is required to fully evaluate the uranium mineral potential of the Pasfield Lake Property. Further work is warranted based on both the number of specific targets, and the amount of compelling exploration data they entail. This drilling confirms the complexity of the graben structures between the shear zone and the margin of the eight kilometer across basement uplift block under the lake itself. Further drilling is required to adequately test for uranium along the margins of the uplift block itself, and in the prospective but complex graben areas, especially where shallow basement is indicated by AMT geophysical surveys. The Pasfield Lake property remains a large and compelling exploration target, encompassing a major basement uplift feature located on a major regional shear zone, with strong surface geochemical anomalies and strongly altered and radioactive rocks discovered in drill core on both sides of the lake, that is, on both the eastern and western "arms" of the Cable Bay Shear zone. 2008 Exploration The 2009 winter drill program followed up on three successful ground programs completed in 2008, all of which refined existing targets and delineated new ones. Approximately 70 line-kilometres of transient magnetotelluric surveys (AMT) were completed in April, both infilling and extending a previous survey. This work improved significantly the outline of the basement uplift block under Pasfield lake, and the location of the Cable Bay shear zone on either side of the block. It also refined the location and relative intensities of basement conductors, and areas of near-surface changes in sandstone resistivity. In June, a 140 line-kilometre airborne 3-D Full Tensor gravity gradient survey was completed to augment a prior survey and provide more detail for forward-modeled gravity profiles across the margins of the basement uplift block at Pasfield Lake. In July, a systematic soil and bio-geochemical survey (>1,000 samples on 9 lines) was completed on the east side of the lake. A robust anomaly (multiple elements in multiple samples on multiple lines) is defined between the Cable Bay shear zone and the margin of the uplift block. Uranium is elevated significantly above background, as are Bo, Pb, Mo, V, As, the five key pathfinder elements associated with alteration halos above unconformity-type uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin. These results improve significantly the integrated structural and geophysical targets associated with the shear zone and horst margin. No drilling was done on the east side of the lake during the late 1970's exploration programs at Pasfield; the 2009 drill program will be the first to test integrated targets on this part of the Cable Bay shear zone. 2007 Exploration The 2007 winter program consisted of: • Four AMT transects totaling 63 line-kilometres, completed by EM Pulse Geophysics Ltd. • A 1,616 line-kilometre airborne 3-D Full Tensor gravity gradient survey completed by Bell Geospace Inc. • Hy-Tech Drilling Ltd. of Smithers, BC completed a total of 1,604 metres of diamond drilling in four vertical holes. Holes PF07-001 and PF07-002 were completed to target depth PF07-003 was ended prematurely in intensely altered basement rock, and the PF07-004 was abandoned in overburden. Depth to basement is 300 metres. • Holes PF07-001 and PF07-002 were successfully probed with a Mount Sopris 2PGA-1000 poly-gamma probe. A total of 266 geochemical samples were submitted to the Saskatchewan Research Council, Saskatoon. Key geological features confirmed by the drill program include: • The Pasfield Lake feature is large, a crudely circular and concentrically zoned magnetic low feature that is eight kilometers in diameter. • A northeasterly-trending V-TEM conductor is coincident with the interpreted surface trace of the regional Cable Bay Shear Zone where it forms the northwestern margin of the Pasfield Lake uplift block. • The Pasfield feature is a block of uplifted basement rock with at least 600 metres of vertical displacement relative to regional basement depths. • The northwestern margin of the block is interpreted to have a complex, step-fault pattern based on results from ALL four AMT. The regional Cable Bay Shear Zone corresponds with this margin. The southeastern margin of the uplift block is equally well defined on AMT survey lines, and on 3-D magnetic inversion models. • A north-south fault is evident through the middle of the Pasfield feature, along which intensly altered basement rocks were drill-intersected. • No anomalous radioactivity was encountered in the two holes probed with the gamma ray tool, but rock types and alteration are prospective for uranium mineralization: • Pervasive bleaching is present in basement rocks at the unconformity in all holes. Hole PF07-003 was terminated in soft, intensely clay-altered granitic gneiss. • Hematite-filled breccia is present in basement granite gneiss in Hole PF07-001. • More than 300 metres of graphitic garnet-mica metapelitic gneiss was recovered in Hole PF07-002, and strongly graphitic fracture zones are common. • Very minor mafic and alkaline intrusive rocks are in holes PF07-001 and 002, but their character, origin and economic significance are not known. The four key areas to be tested in subsequent drill programs are: 1. The on-land southern portion of Cable Bay Shear Zone where a vertical offset of 600 metres or more is evident. 2. The north-south fault inferred from gravity and proven by drilling in the central portion of the uplift block. 3. The east-west internal step faults and parallel V-TEM conductors in the northern part of the block. 4. The southeastern margin of the uplift block. The AMT survey results indicate that the Cable Bay Shear Zone is one kilometre west of the lake shore on Line C and two kilometres west of the lake shore on Line D (see property-scale compilation map to right). This part of the shear zone, which forms the western margin of the basement uplift block, will be drill-tested during the 2007 summer program. 2006 Exploration The 2006 summer program at Pasfield followed-up on an airborne V-TEM survey flown in January (see below). • Detailed lake bathymetry data were collected, and limited lake sediment samples. • Grid-based soil sampling was done over the five kilometre long, northeast trending linear conductor that is near the northwest shore of Pasfield Lake. Twenty line-kilometres of audio-magnetotelluric surveys (AMT) were completed over the northerly trending V-TEM conductor east of Moss Creek that is seven kilometres long and located on the eastern flank of a prominent magnetic low 2005 Exploration Thelon Ventures acquired the property in 2005 and contracted Geotech Ltd. to complete 1,116 line-kilometres of helicopter-borne time-domain EM (V-TEM) over the western part of the property, at 200 metre line spacing. The results warranted follow-up. Depth to basement below the Athabasca Group sandstone cover ranges from 800 to 1300 metres in the region. However, modeling of both historic Geologic Survey of Canada magnetic data, and high resolution magnetic data from the 2005 V-TEM survey, indicate that depth to basement under Pasfield Lake is much shallower, between 300 and 500 metres. There are four main areas of interpreted basement electromagnetic activity evident from the recent V-TEM survey, including a complexly zoned body 8 kilometres in diameter under Pasfield Lake, a 5 kilometre long, northeast trending linear conductor coincident with the clay-bound fault breccia encountered in historic drilling near the northwest shore of Pasfield Lake, and a 9 kilometre long, north-trending conductive feature which crosses Moss Creek along which numerous radioactive springs of radon and helium are known. Magnetic and EM zonation in the circular feature below the lake coincide. Exploration History Strong airborne radiometric anomalies have long been known in the Moss Creek area some ten kilometres northwest of Pasfield Lake since the Geological of Canada regional surveys were flown across the Athabasca Basin in the late 1960's. Ground follow-up work in 1978 identified a large and robust radiometric anomaly at the spring-fed headwaters of Moss Creek some 12 kilometres northwest of Pasfield Lake. Results included coincident anomalies of radon in water (more than 11 anomalous samples), uranium in stream sediment (more than 27 anomalous samples), and radioactive surface moss along the same three kilometre stretch of Moss Creek, along with helium in near-by soil gas. Three drill holes were completed over the anomaly area in 1979. The holes were barren and intersected basement at 900 metres depth or more. Based on a regional groundwater study, it was proposed that the uranium source for the Moss Creek anomaly was exotic, and located towards or under Pasifield Lake. 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. Glacial till covers most of the property; outcrop is rare, restricted mostly to river valleys that feed into the eastern shore of Pasfield Lake. Basement rocks intersected in drill core at Pasfield Lake are part of the Mudjatic Domain. They include tonalitic and granitic gneisses of probable late Archean age and part of the Mudjatic Domain, minor granite pegmatite, and strongly graphitic pelites and graphitie-bearing garnet-cordierite-biotite pelitic gneiss of probably earliest Proterozoic age and related to the Wollaston Group. 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. 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 are known, and magnetic upper Wollaston Supergroup units could possibly be present. 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. Proterozoic Athabasca Group sedimentary rocks in the region of the property were deposited in the Cree sub-basin, positioned between the Cable Bay shear zone to the east, and the Snowbird Tectonic Zone (Virgin River shear zone) to the east. Athabasca Group rocks include the Read Formation (formerly MFa) and three members of the Manitou Falls Formation: the MFb, MFc and MFd members. The Read Formation is the most variable unit. It is a local basal conglomerate with disseminated or bedded pebbles to boulders in sandstone matrix, and is overlain by a fine- to coarse-grained sandstone with disseminated pebbles and interlayered mudstones. Total thickness of the Athabasca Group in the region is 900 metres, based on drill holes in the Moss Creek area. 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. |
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