West Perth-based iron ore and gold explorer Royal Resources Ltd has completed the staking of a second uranium project over 51 sqkm in Colorado and Utah in the United States.
West Perth-based iron ore and gold explorer Royal Resources Ltd has completed the staking of a second uranium project over 51 sqkm in Colorado and Utah in the United States.
The projects, which will be operated by joint venture partner - Salt Lake City-based Lynx LLC - will see Royal earn 80 per cent equity in all projects by the expenditure of around $5.6 million over five years.
The full text of a company announcement is pasted below
Royal Resources Limited (ASX: ROY) is pleased to announce that it has successfully completed the staking of the Wray Mesa uranium project, its second uranium acquisition in the USA.
The project consists of 622 unpatented lode mining claims covering some 51 square kilometres (~12,700 acres) in south-western Colorado and south-eastern Utah.
The claims are located on the Colorado Plateau within the Uravan Mineral Belt, one of the largest and oldest uranium-vanadium mining districts in the USA. The Wray Mesa uranium project is located 30 kilometres north-west of Royal's recently acquired Egnar uranium project (see ASX release 3 August 2007).
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Wray Mesa uranium project has the same geological setting as the Egnar uranium project, located in close proximity to significant historical underground and open cut uranium mines.
The total estimated production from mines within the region is well over 35,000 tonnes of U3O8 with some of the larger mines producing over 30 million lbs (13,600 tonnes) of U3O8. Importantly the average mined grades for the whole Uravan Mineral Belt is 5.5lbs/tonne U3O8 with significant grades (~50lbs/tonne V2O5) of vanadium.
The entire Wray Mesa uranium project is underlain by the highly prospective Salt Wash sandstone member of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation which is well exposed along the walls of canyons incising the flank of the nearby Paradox Valley anticline and bounding Wray Mesa. Historically, this extensive sandstone unit has hosted most of the uranium production in the region.
The Wray Mesa uranium project is well serviced by existing infrastructure and is within trucking distance of the operating White Mesa uranium mill located to the south within Utah.
TARGET
The primary target of the Wray Mesa uranium project is high grade (5.5lbs/tonne) uranium-vanadium deposits of greater than 20 million lbs within the sandstone units of the upper Jurassic Morrison Formation.
JOINT VENTURE
In April 2007, Royal entered into an Option and Joint Venture Agreement with Lynx2 LLC (Lynx) of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. The purpose of the Royal-Lynx joint venture was to identify and acquire uranium and other mineral properties for exploration and development principally within the US.
Under the terms of the joint venture, Royal is earning 80% equity in all projects generated by the expenditure of US$4.5 million over 5 years. Wray Mesa is the second project generated and acquired by Lynx, as operators of the joint venture. A very aggressive claim staking (claim pegging on federal lands) operation is currently underway elsewhere in Colorado and results of this work will be available once all necessary statutory filings have been lodged with various state and federal government authorities.