Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
Forum Energy Metals (TSXV: FMC) reached an agreement with Orano Canada whereby it will grant to Orano a series of options to acquire up to a 70% interest in the Fir Island uranium project in Saskatchewan, Canada.
In a press release, the firms said that Orano has to spend C$6 million on the property on or before December 31, 2023, to earn the full 70% Interest. Prior to this, the buyer can earn a 51% interest by spending C$3 million by the end of 2021.
The Black Lake fault, part of the Snowbird Tectonic Zone, transect the entire Athabasca Basin and is prospective for unconformity-type uranium deposits
The Fir Island project lies along the northern rim of the Athabasca Basin, overlying the Snowbird Tectonic Zone, a major structural corridor which, near the southern rim of the basin, hosts Cameco’s Centennial deposit.
In 2015, Forum completed 10 holes for a total of 2,453 metres of drilling, testing the Snowbird fault and the parallel East Channel fault.
According to the Vancouver-based miner, anomalous uranium (up to 444ppm over 10.6 metres in sandstone in hole FI-03), boron (up to 717ppm over 10 metres in sandstone in hole FI-08) and base metals (cobalt up to 0.48% over 63.8 metres in FI-03) were intersected.
“Strong quartz dissolution and remobilization, tectonization in the sandstone, dravite and sudoite clays locally in both sandstone and basement rocks, and a 50-metre off-set in the unconformity were intersected; all excellent indicators of nearby uranium mineralization,” the media brief reads.
