May 1 2007 – Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. (TSX:PTU.V) today released a progress report on their winter exploration program in Canada’s Athabasca Basin. This work represents the first stage of this year’s $8 million Basin work program.
“The early start to the winter season allowed us to advance our priority projects in a substantial manner” said Scott Frostad, Purepoint’s Vice President Exploration. “In addition to two drill programs and two helicopter surveys, geophysical crews have worked continuously for the past five months conducting resistivity, gravity and electromagnetic ground surveys to refine 11 of our primary targets.”
Highlights:
- Purepoint completed a 1,789 metre diamond drill program at the Turnor Lake project and a 567 metre diamond drill program at the Hook Lake project (Cameco/AREVA/ Purepoint joint venture), assays pending;
- Three year-round camps capable of housing in excess of 60 field crew and technical staff have now been constructed with two more are planned for June;
- In preparation for their pending drill programs, an array of geophysical surveys were completed over key target areas at the Turnor Lake, Red Willow and William River projects including 2,106 line kilometers of helicopter borne VTEM, 230 line kilometres of surface transient electromagnetics, 5,003 stations of gravity and 149 line kilometers of resistivity.
Hook Lake Project
On February 7, 2007 Purepoint announced the Hook Lake joint venture with UEM Inc., a company owned 50% by each of AREVA Resources Canada Inc. and Cameco Corporation, the world’s two largest uranium exploration, mining and milling companies.
Diamond drilling commenced at Hook Lake in early March, immediately following the issuance of drill permits. During that month, an initial three hole, 567 metre diamond drill program was completed on the Derkson Corridor. The diamond drill remains on the property and drilling is scheduled to resume this summer.
The Hook Lake Project was staked by UEM in 1997 and consists of six claims totaling 26,051 hectares situated in the southwestern Athabasca Basin approximately 80 kilometers southeast of the former Cluff Lake mine. The depth to unconformity is very shallow, ranging from zero to 350 metres.
Three prospective “corridors” have been defined on the property, each corridor being comprised of multiple conductors that have been confirmed to be graphitic metasediments that intersect the Athabasca unconformity.
Historic exploration efforts focused on the Derkson Corridor, where SMDC encountered uranium mineralization near the unconformity averaging 0.24% U3O8 and 1.35% Ni over 2.5 metres of diamond drilling. Drill holes along this trend encountered very encouraging “Millennium-style” basement alteration. Historic shallow drilling along the Derkson Corridor did not test for deeper Millennium or Eagle Point-type basement-hosted uranium deposits.
Turnor Lake Project
In response to last year’s encouraging first stage exploratory diamond drill results, the Klaproth Point target was refined with a number of detailed geophysical surveys this winter.
The Turnor Lake Project is 100% owned by Purepoint and includes five claims with a total area of 9,705 hectares situated in the eastern plane of the Athabasca Basin. Depth to the unconformity is shallow at approximately 180 metres.
During the season five holes were drilled within the Klaproth Point target area for a total of 1,789 metres. Four holes focused on water based areas and one hole tested a gravity anomaly.
Extensive geophysical data was collected across four target areas including Klaproth Point, Siskin Fault, Cotinga Lake and the Quetzal Zone . A 135 line kilometre transient electromagnetic (TEM) survey, a 3,870 station gravity survey and a 51 line kilometre resistivity survey were performed over these four targets. Linecutting over the Anvil South target was accomplished late in the season and a gravity survey has been conducted in this area. In addition to surface work, the entire Turnor Lake property was surveyed utilizing helicopter borne VTEM.
The ground and airborne geophysical results are being analyzed and interpreted under the guidance of Purepoint’s Chief Geophysicist, Roger Watson in preparation of this summer’s exploration effort.
Red Willow Project
Following on last year’s helicopter borne VTEM survey, the company’s two camps at Red Willow were busy with geophysical crews acquiring data on 4 of the 11 identified target areas to help design this summer’s drill program.
The Red Willow project consists of eight claims on the eastern edge of the Athabasca Basin where unconformity depths are very shallow at depths of 0 to 80 metres. Five major uranium deposits, JEB, Midwest, Cigar Lake, McArthur River and Millennium, are located along a NE to SW mine trend that extends through the Red Willow Project.
The Q Conductors, Petrel target and Osprey target were covered with 33 line kilometres of step-wise moving loop TEM surveying, a 1,133 station gravity survey and a 19 line kilometre resistivity survey. Over the 333 Zone and Long Lake target areas, 62 line kilometres of step-wise moving loop TEM was completed as well as 79 line kilometres of resistivity surveying.
Linecutting has been completed over the Lyon Lake, Biotite Boulders and Horse Lake target areas. Baselines have been cut for the Geneva, Dancing Lake and Big Bay grids and linecutting is scheduled to resume on these grids in June.
A limited drill program is scheduled to be conducted at the Red Willow project this summer.
The William River Project
In June 2006, Purepoint completed a 1,700 line kilometer MEGATEM II airborne electromagnetic and magnetic survey. The survey was flown at a line spacing of 1,000 metres on the property in order to confirm depths and specific areas of interest. As follow up to that work, Purepoint performed a 490 line kilometer sample helicopter borne VTEM survey in December, 2006 over an area of conductivity interest on six of the southern claims. A regional fault structure can be seen in the GSC magnetic data, trending almost due north from the western edge of the block up to the western part of the Beaverlodge area.
The MEGATEM survey results, as interpreted by Condor Consulting, found several anomalies at basement depth. These linear anomalies strike northwest and are parallel to magnetic dyke structures that come to surface a few kilometres to the north. The anomalies are interpreted as basement graphitic sediments and are now being studied by advanced software capable of modeling low amplitude anomalies at depth.
An airborne gravity survey is planned for this summer season to locate areas of low density indicative of hydrothermal alteration zones. A reflection seismic survey designed to locate faults in the basement surface, specifically related to the Clearwater fault, is also planned pending final cost and financing considerations.
About Purepoint
Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. is focused on the precision exploration of more than 23 defined target areas on its nine projects in the Canadian Athabasca Basin, including two projects joint ventured with Cameco Corporation and AREVA Resources Canada Inc. Established in the Basin well before the resurgence in uranium, Purepoint is actively advancing its large portfolio of multiple drill targets in the world’s richest uranium region.
Scott Frostad BSc, MASc, PGeo, Purepoint’s Vice President, Exploration, is the Qualified Person responsible for technical content of this release.
THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
For further information please contact:
Purepoint Uranium Group Inc.
Chris
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