Perth-based explorer Thunderbird Resources is beefing up its bank balance to the tune of $4.1 million ahead of a 2400m drilling blitz targeting high-grade uranium at its flagship Hidden Bay project in the globally-renowned Athabasca Basin in Canada.
Fieldwork programs are already underway, with the company’s drill-testing of multiple targets at the operation expected to kick off in August.
Management has also earmarked part of the funding to be utilised across its other Canadian uranium projects, including airborne geophysics at the Surprise Creek play where past drilling returned a 2.1m intercept at a cracking 4.37 per cent uranium.
The capital raise consists of a placement to secure $1.35 million at an issue price of 3c – representing only a modest 6.25 per cent discount to the previous closing share price of 3.2c. Respected corporate finance and stockbroking firm CPS Capital was as the lead manager in the placement.
In conjunction, the company has launched a fully-underwritten entitlement offer to raise nearly $2.8 million, also at 3c per share, with eligible shareholders able to apply for one share for every two shares held.
The offer closes on the June 26.
Thunderbird executive chairman George Bauk said: “ With the uranium price at US$90 lb and with an exceptionally strong long-term outlook, this capital raised provides Thunderbird with a strong cash position to test its high-priority uranium targets and to ensure Thunderbird can add value for Shareholders.”
The company’s wholly-owned Hidden Bay is on the eastern edges of the Athabasca Basin – a geological wonderland with a mining history that stretches back for 60 years. Historically, the region has churned out about 20 per cent of the world’s primary uranium supply and is revered for hosting some of the richest uranium deposits on the planet.
The project lies in proximity to many uranium deposits and producing mines, including the uber-rich Cigar Lake that is controlled by uranium mining titan, Cameco. The average grade at Cigar Lake comes in at an astounding 17 per cent uranium, showcasing the fertile geological profile of the Athabasca Basin.
Thunderbird recently obtained a three-year work permit for Hidden Bay, freeing up the company to unleash the drill rig as part of its exploration efforts. Management has already defined five drill-ready targets through its interpretation of detailed gravity and magnetic data from a recent airborne survey, in addition to radon geochemistry and reconnaissance geological mapping.
The proposed drilling is expected to focus on gravity lows coinciding with interpreted structures and/or lithological contacts, with five holes planned for 2400m. It will seek to intercept basement-type uranium targets akin to NexGen Energy’s Arrow project where a resource totalling nearly 340 million pounds of uranium at 1.8 per cent has already been defined, propelling its market cap to more than C$5 billion (AU$5.52 billion) since discovery in 2014.
Separately, the 100 per cent-owned Surprise Creek lies just to the north of the Athabasca Basin boundary and boasts a string of notable uranium hits from historical drilling, as well as significant copper intercepts including 9m at 2.07 per cent and 6.6m at 1.31 per cent. The company is targeting structurally-controlled, vein-type mineralisation at the project.
Management has already defined uranium mineralisation in a 500m strike at Surprise Creek, with drilling of the project anticipated to follow the planned airborne geophysics. Thunderbird also holds three other prospective uranium projects in and around the Athabasca Basin, including Cluff Lake located 7km east of the historical Cluff Lake mine that produced more than 60 million pounds of uranium at 0.92 per cent.
Uranium has been one of the hottest tickets in town in recent times, with price of the metal skyrocketing from less than US$30 (AU$45.20) per pound in 2022 to nearly US$90 (AU$135.60) per pound at present.
And the immediate future could be even brighter as a swathe of nations around the global look to limit the impacts of climate change by implementing policies favourable to nuclear power – a source of energy generation that can’t function without uranium.
Thunderbird’s portfolio of assets lies in one of the most celebrated uranium jurisdictions in the world. So, many eyes are likely to be firmly fixed on the cashed-up explorer as it looks to smash out the drill metres at its highly-prospective uranium projects in the mighty Athabasca Basin.
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By Bart Bogacz
