CanAlaska Uranium shores up Pike zone with more high-grade hits in Athabasca

Colin McClelland - The Northern Miner | October 10, 2024 | 

Drilling at the West McArthur project is focused on expanding the footprint of the ‘42 zone’ mineralization. Credit: CanAlaska Uranium

CanAlaska Uranium (TSXV: CVV) posted new “ultra high-grade” drill results from its Athabasca basin joint venture with Cameco (TSX: CCO; NYSE: CCJ) that strengthen its Pike discovery, made in 2022. Company shares gained 7.6%.


Highlights at the Pike zone of the West McArthur project in northern Saskatchewan show drill hole WMA082-11 on target L85E cut 25.8 metres grading 6.47% uranium oxide (U3O8) including 4 metres at 22.78% U3O8, CanAlaska said on Thursday.

Drill hole WMA082-8 returned 16.2 metres grading 7.63% U3O8, including 6.1 metres at 17.31% U3O8. On target L70E, drill hole WMA082-7 cut 11.4 metres at 6.22% U3O8, including 5.6 metres grading 11.4% U3O8.

The results from the drilling this summer follow 9.3% U3O8 over 16.2 metres from 797 metres depth in hole WMA082-12 reported last month. And there was the discovery in July showing 9.3 metres grading 11.62% radiometric equivalent U3O8 in hole WMA082-8. Cormark Securities has compared CanAlaska’s results to potential for “pearls on a string.”

The company found uranium mineralization in 11 of 12 unconformity tests at Pike this summer. The results indicate a strike length of about 200 metres including a high-grade area of 100 metres that remain open in all directions, it said. CanAlaska, which holds 83% of the project, is paying for this year’s exploration to increase its stake.

“Pike zone is starting to position itself into a possible world-class uranium discovery located just 12 km from the giant McArthur River uranium mine,” CanAlaska CEO Cory Belyk in a release. “Pike zone is growing rapidly in its footprint.”
More drilling

CanAlaska plans more exploration to start in January as companies scramble to take advantage of nuclear power’s renewed momentum to help replace fossil fuels and a uranium spot price that hit a 17-year record high early this year.

The West is keen to develop its own resources and shun production from pariah Russia. The Athabasca basin is one of the planet’s richest uranium hotspots, where companies such as Cameco, French state-owned giant Orano, and Denison Mines (TSX: DML; NYSE: DNN) are working to extract the energy metal.

Shares in CanAlaska Uranium traded for C$0.71 apiece Thursday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at C$115.8 million. They’ve traded in a 52-week range of C$0.34 to C$0.79.

Cormark Securities mining analyst Nicolas Dion said in a Sept. 27 note that the summer drilling program bodes well for the project. The company reported that day two holes with less mineralization: 13.2 metres at 3.88% U3O8 in hole MA094-2 and 9.9 metres at 3.41% U3O8 in hole WMA094-1.

“While not as thick as the intercepts in the original sections/discovery area, these results confirm the potential for additional pods of high-grade mineralization along strike at the Pike zone,” Dion said. “This opens up the blue-sky potential as we think about the common ‘pearls on a string’ analogy for other high-grade unconformity-hosted deposits in the basin.”