April 12 2004 – Purepoint Uranium Corporation is pleased to announce that the company has begun its staking program in the Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan. This work marks the end of a sixteen month research program focused on identifying distinct, targeted properties with historic significance in the region.
“The economics underlying the uranium market have been depressed for some time however the spot price of uranium has jumped over 70 per cent to US$17.50 per lb., in just over a year,” said Chris Frostad, President and CEO, Purepoint Uranium Corporation. “The time is right for us to execute our plans.”
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the cost of uranium discovery in Canada was US$8.53 per lb., during the 1990s, just barely exceeded by the spot price of uranium which averaged just over US$10.00 per lb. “We have had the opportunity to selectively target highly prospective projects abandoned over the past two decades,” said Frostad.
The Saskatchewan Athabasca Basin provides one third of the world’s uranium production credited primarily to that region’s unusually high ore grade deposits. Uranium can be economically mined at concentrations of as low as .03 per cent with the average grade of mined uranium deposits in the world sitting at about .15 per cent.
The average ore grade of the two dozen identified deposits in this region is greater than 3 per cent. The two largest deposits (Cigar Lake and McArthur River) have average ore grades of between 17 to 18 per cent reaching as high as 80 per cent in some pockets.
Initially focused on the examination of known deposits in order to help identify new indicators, Purepoint has painstakingly and systematically researched historical surveys of the Basin in order to identify its proposed claims. The staking process is expected to be completed by the end of 2005.
Purepoint Uranium Corporation is a uranium exploration company driven by intellectual, precision prospecting focusing on distinct, targeted properties with historic significance in the Canadian
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