Did you catch the latest Fission Uranium press release? Drill results from two holes at the R390E zone have extended the strike length to 105m. Not only that but hole 075 intersected the largest quantity of off-scale mineralization and the widest continuous off-scale interval that we’ve drilled at PLS so far. I blogged about this on the Fission CEO Corner so apologies is this isn’t news to you, however, the drill highlights are definitely worth sharing again:

• 21.65m total off-scale radioactivity in several discrete intervals including
• 16.7m of continuous off-scale (>9999 cps) (73.5m – 90.2m)
• 82.0m of variable strength basement mineralization in two zones, separated by only 2.5m of barren rock

I cannot give enough credit to our technical team. As I mentioned in my CEO Corner blog, there may be a lot of high-grade uranium in the Athabasca Basin but the deposits there are amongst the toughest to find anywhere in the world. The continuing succession of great hits at PLS are a combination of considerable technical skill, innovation and a great deal of hard work on the part of Ross McElroy and his team.

Dev Randhawa, CEO of Fission Uranium

Had an interesting email newsletter recently from Dave Forest at Piercepoints.com – a resource sector observer. The subject matter was the price of liquid natural gas (LNG) which has been enjoying high prices recently at the expense of nuclear energy.

This is something I covered a while back when writing for Fission’s CEO Corner (when we were still Fission Energy). Specifically, that =one of the side effects of idling Japan’s reactor fleet has been a rise is the global price of LNG (yes, they are importing that much). With some of South Korea’s reactor fleet idled due to inspections related to falsified documents, this temporary price rise has increased even further.

Dave Forest’s point is that this price hike is temporary. S. Korea has already announced the imminent restarts of two reactors and Japan now has a total of twelve reactor restart applications in place. I agree. In my opinion, can natural gas replace nuclear? Yes, but at a cost that simply isn’t feasible over the long term. Things are already coming back around in the East as the restarts get under way and with it, nuclear will resume its growing place in the energy mix.

Dev Randhawa.

Great quote from David Talbot in a recent interview:

“The Russians say they’re not going to do it. The Russians aren’t making money downblending uranium and they’ve said they’re going to sell forward a lot of their enrichment capacity…. The last time this HEU agreement came into play, it took I think four years and six governments plus all the agencies to put it in place. It was a very grueling process. That process is not underway right now.”

For me that really does say it. So many times you hear that the HEU agreement is expected to end – I’ve even said it myself – but rarely do you hear someone step forward and say here’s the proof. Great news that Talbot has stepped forward with what he feels (and I agree) to be confirmation that the HEU agreement will not be going forward.

Incidentally, if you’re interested in checking out the full interview you can find it here. It’s a good read and touches upon many of the important issues affecting the uranium sector at this present time and going forward.

Dev Randhawa

Ross McElroy, Fission’s COO, President and Chief Geo is, in my opinion, the most experienced and successful exploration experts in the Athabasca. He’s been instrumental in four of the last major uranium discoveries there and has led the team responsible for two major discoveries in three years. As we kick off the summer drill program I asked him to share his thoughts on PLS so far.

I think it’s safe to say it’s as good as anything I’ve ever encountered. The boulder field that led us to the first discovery hole is the biggest ever found in the Basin and some of the intersections we’ve hit are incredible – the grades and widths are up there with the best that anyone has ever come across in the Basin. My belief is we’re looking at a very robust system.

Right now we have three discovery zones – the first was found at the end of Fission Energy’s final exploration season before the asset sale to Denison and the second and third were found at the start of Fission Uranium’s first exploration season. We had more than an 80% strike rate on our last drill program which was phenomenal and I believe comes down to the expertise of our technical team in planning, running and analyzing the survey data that preceded the actual drilling.

The final thing to mention, and in some ways this is one of the most important comments, is the depth of the deposit. I say depth but I guess the more accurate description is the shallowness. Most of the mineralization we’ve discovered so far lies within 100m of the surface and that makes it open-pittable. In fact, it’s possible that this is the only open-pittable high-grade uranium project that is still unmined. At a time when most explorers in the Athabasca Basin have been looking deeper and deeper, we’ve proved that there are still major high-grades to be found close to the surface. That makes it even more attractive to companies looking to acquire a project with a view to taking it into production.

Ross McElroy

Why the Athabasca Basin

Well the uranium deposits in the Athabasca are the highest grades in the world and they are the toughest to find anywhere. Uranium deposits are actually quite plentiful but typically the grades are very, very low. The Athabasca deposits are essentially the Formula One of uranium grades. It’s the greatest challenge but the greatest reward when you find them – there’s nothing else like it.

Also, I guess I fell in love with the Athabasca region and the uranium sector pretty early on in my career. I got my first break there as part of the small team that made the Cigar Lake discovery and later the Shee Creek discovery – both of which were simply massive deposits. Since then, well I went on to lead the Fission Energy team that made the J-Zone discovery at Waterbury lake and now of course the Patterson Lake South (PLS) discovery.

The quality of the deposits, and the fact that the Basin has been a uranium district for over 40 years, means it has phenomenal infrastructure. By that I’m not just referring to the power grid, proximity to the highway and high-tech, high-capacity mills but also having some of the most experienced uranium miners right on your doorstep. There are even third-generation uranium mining professionals down there and having access to that sort of expertise in your field team – it makes a difference.

On top of the infrastructure is the government support. Canada of course is one of the most stable democracies in the world but at a provincial level and even a local level they are strongly and consistently pro-mining. That makes permitting much easier and timelines far more predictable.

All of this makes the Athabasca the number one uranium mining district in my opinion. It supplies nearly 20% of the world’s uranium and if you’re a junior explorer then it makes it easier to reach your end game when you make a discovery there.

Ross McElroy

Ross McElroy Fission President, COO and Technical Team Leader

For those of you that don’t already know Fission Ross McElroy is Fission Uranium’s president, COO and chief geo. He has racked up over 30 years as a professional geologist and spent his early years in the industry with the Majors including Areva, Cameco and BHP and moved over to the junior exploration space in 2003. Ross McElroy has had a huge impact on the uranium exploration sector, with his first break coming as part of the small geo team that made the McArthur River discovery (the world’s largest high grade discovery). He went on to be instrumental in five of the last nine major discoveries in the Athabasca Basin, including of course the two discoveries make by the Fission team – the J-Zone at Waterbury Lake and Patterson Lake South (PLS).

The time he spent with the Majors has given Ross McElroy a particular edge that many other Geos in the junior mining space don’t have. He’s an explorer yes, but he’s also had experience of every aspect of the mining industry – from concept through to mine construction and production. He understands how the Majors think and act – what they want in a discovery and from the Juniors that they work with. As an exploration company, this sort of knowledge and experience is invaluable.

Another great thing about Ross McElroy is he truly loves his work. In a recent interview with Stockhouse he likened the challenge of finding uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin to finding a pirate’s treasure chest. I’ve also found that when you combine this sort of passion with a high level skillset you end up with a great deal of success. If you look at his track record I think you’ll agree that success and Ross McElroy have gone hand in hand for some time.

You can find out more on Ross McElroy on the Fission website.

Dev Randhawa

Dev Randhawa on Pandora’s Promise

“It’s not every day that two of the richest men in the world decide to back a documentary film – Pandora’s Promise – that takes on a topic that has long been an environmental taboo.”

That’s the opening line of an article by Forbes’ journalist Kerry Dolan writing about a new documentary called Pandora’s Promise directed by Robert Stone. The article looks at why Stone, who some years ago was against nuclear energy, decided to make the film and why people like Paul Allen (Microsoft co-founder) and Richard Branson (Virgin Group founder) decided to back it.

The article on Pandora’s Promise is well worth reading but what I really liked were some of the comments posted. Ken Silverstein, a regular contributor to Forbes and the editor-in-chief for Energy Central’s EnergyBiz Insider rounded off his comment with this: “The question is how to provide reliable electricity in the cleanest possible fashion. The question is NOT how would we like to provide electricity in the cleanest possible fashion.”

Ken understands the situation the world is in. The world is demanding more and more electricity (est. 76% increase by 2030). We have to meet that demand and we have to slash carbon emissions – there is NO other choice. Regardless of Fukushima, Nuclear energy is clean, reliable and has very low operating costs. The world is well beyond being able to put aside the facts. Nuclear energy has a large and growing role to play or else the lights are going to go out.

You can find the movie website here.

Dev Randhawa