February 21 2006 – Drilling on the Turaco Grid at the Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. (TSX-V:PTU) Turnor Lake project in the Athabasca Basin, Northern Saskatchewan, has commenced as announced today by the company.
“The Turaco Grid is a high priority target for us, and we are very pleased to have this year’s drill program underway, ” said Chris Frostad President and CEO, Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. “The area has a unique zone of flat lying conductivity possibly originating from clay alteration at the unconformity which is typical of the high-grade deposits in the Athabasca.”
Purepoint conducted 97 kilometers of Fixed Loop Transient Electromagnetics (TDEM) and 95 kilometers of Magnetics on the Turaco Grid during February and March 2005. In total, eight kilometers of conductors were outlined during the TDEM survey.
Two parallel conductors form the edges of a flat-lying area of strong conductivity lying within a magnetic low. The two bounding conductors are interpreted to represent possible sub-vertical graphitic metapelite horizons within the basement rock and the flat-lying conductor may originate from clay alteration lying at or near the unconformity.
The flat-lying zone of conductivity and its bounding conductors terminate abruptly towards the southwest. At the point of termination, depth to the unconformity is interpreted from the TDEM to change from 250 meters to 175 meters and may represent a thrust fault.
The McArthur River deposit is adjacent to a thrust fault along which the unconformity is displaced vertically 60 to 80 meters. The thrust fault at McArthur River is considered to have been a structural trap for uraniferous hydrothermal fluids.
Airborne EM (COGEMA, 1994) indicates that the flat-lying conductive zone continues along strike to the northeast. The closest historic drill holes along strike of the chargeability zone are 2.5 kilometers northeast from the Turaco Grid and includes DDH OD-1. Hole OD-1 is located on Purepoint’s Turnor Property and was drilled by SMDC in 1983. The vertical hole encountered strong clay alteration near the unconformity, which was intersected at a depth of 132.6 metres, and returned 0.06% U3O8 over 3.4 metres.
Cogema (1990) conducted a lithogeochemical study of 1296 boulders over 100 kilometers that covered the Turaco grid. Only ten boulders had measurable levels of chlorite with the highest level, ten percent, being returned from the northeast corner of the Turaco Grid. Two other chloritic boulders are from the same area. Two strongly illitic boulder samples that are also rich in clay overlie the flat-lying chargeability high at the northwest edge of the Turaco Grid. A zone of moderate uranium enrichment extends along the entire southeast edge of the Turaco Grid.
Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. is a uranium focused exploration company with 100 percent ownership of 130,000 hectares in the Canadian Athabasca Basin. Established in the Basin before the resurgence in uranium, Purepoint is now actively advancing seven key properties of historic significance. Several of these projects contain near term targets, with drilling now underway.