About Red Willow
The 100% owned Red Willow property is situated on the eastern edge of the Athabasca Basin in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada and consists of 17 mineral claims having a total area of 40,116 hectares. The property is located close to several uranium deposits including Orano Resources Canada Inc.’s JEB mine, approximately 10 kilometres to the southwest, and Cameco’s Eagle Point mine that is approximately 10 kilometres due south.
Geophysical surveys conducted by Purepoint at Red Willow have included airborne magnetic and electromagnetic (VTEM) surveys, an airborne radiometric survey, ground gradient array IP, pole-dipole array IP, fixed-loop and moving-loop transient electromagnetics, and gravity. The detailed airborne VTEM survey provided magnetic results that are an excellent base on which to interpret structures while the EM results outlined over 70 kilometres of conductors that in most instances represent favourable graphitic lithology. A total of twenty-one conductive zones have been identified as priority exploration targets of which only seven have been subject to first pass drilling.
Purepoint is currently assembling a diamond drill program and will initially focus on the Osprey Zone. Additional priority exploration areas include – the Geneva Zone, the Radon Lake Zone, the Golden Eye Zone, Topping Island, the 333 Zone and the CBA Zone.
Osprey Zone
Drilling on the Osprey Zone conductor has discovered a lens of uranium mineralization that returned up to 0.20% eU3O8 over 5.8 metres from a shallow depth of 70 metres. The 6-kilometre long “S”-shaped Osprey conductor, host to numerous intercepts of anomalous uranium, has excellent exploration potential at depth below the known mineralized zone and towards the west.
The main mineralized zone has only been drill tested at shallow depths (average hole length < 160 metres) and is open at depth for further stacked, parallel lenses of mineralization. Favourable sedimentary rocks are also interpreted to lie immediately west of the Osprey conductor and will be targeted for uranium hosted by sub-vertical structures and sub-horizontal stacked lenses.
The fold hinge of the Osprey conductor requires further drilling after a fence of three holes by Purepoint (2008) intersected a vertical, weakly radioactive fault zone (Hinge Fault) associated with strong chlorite and hematite alteration and intervals of lost core. The fault zone returned 138 ppm U over 0.6 metres between 75.7 and 76.3 metres from hole RW-29 and 358 ppm U over 0.4 metres between 159.1 and 159.5 metres from hole RW-41. Alteration of the basement rocks increases along the northern fold limb towards the fold nose where one of the three holes drilled, RW-28, encountered strong clay alteration.
Geneva Zone
The Geneva Zone represents a priority target based on ground geophysics and first pass drilling. Historic drilling by Eldorado Resources Ltd (Eldorado) intersected very strong basement alteration and anomalous radioactivity in the Geneva Zone with RAD-27 returning 0.22% U3O8 over 1.0 metres within a graphitic fault zone. Although Eldorado completed numerous holes in the area, most were stopped at less than 100 metres into the basement rock.
Hole 14RDW008 also intersected uranium mineralization associated with the Geneva conductor returning 0.68% U3O8 over 0.3 metres at a depth of 90 metres. Follow-up drilling will continue to test the radioactive graphitic shear towards the south.
Radon Lake Zone
Gulf (1968) conducted an airborne radiometric survey that covered the Radon Lake zone and followed-up with a reconnaissance geochemical soil survey, radon-in-water survey and prospecting during 1971 and 1972. Extremely high concentrations of radon (a product of decaying uranium) were found in the surface water just west of a waterbody that Gulf named “Radon Lake”. Subsequent drilling by Gulf failed to located the source of the radon-in-water anomaly.
Purepoint’s first pass diamond drill hole RAD08-09 returned 283 ppm U over 1.1 metres from sandstone just above the unconformity. The offset conductors within the Radon Lake area are suggestive of structural complexity and additional drilling here is considered warranted.
Golden Eye Zone
The Golden Eye target area hosts interpreted crosscutting faults located between two historic uranium occurrences, the FDL showing and the AJ showing. At the FDL showing, uranium mineralization is associated with a 1 metre wide, northeast trending shear zone that crosscuts an outcrop of graphitic biotite-rich pelitic gneiss. Assays from the shear zone returned trace to 1.43% U3O8.
The AJ showing was originally identified in 1977 by Canadian Superior during a regional geochemical survey. Two small lakes, located 1 kilometre apart, returned anomalous uranium concentrations in both lake water and lake bottom sediments. Follow-up prospecting led to the discovery of a large (3m by 1m) radioactive molybdenite-garnet-biotite schist subcrop that returned trace to 0.46% U3O8.
Topping Island
The Topping Island area was explored during the early 1980’s after a pitchstone cobble was discovered down-ice of the arcuate shaped EM conductor. The Topping Island conductor appears to be the eastern terminus of the conductive trend that hosts the Richardson Lake and Crooked Lake Zones on Denison Mines Hatchet Lake property. Denison’s diamond drill program on that property intersected mineralization in drill hole RL-13-16 returning 0.45% U3O8 over 2.3 metres.
Purepoint flew a VTEM survey over Topping Island in two different directions using a close line spacing of 125 metres to provide detail of the arcuate, 6-kilometre long, EM anomaly. The results of the airborne survey will be used to plan Purepoint’s initial drill program.
333 Zone
In 1975, Gulf Minerals Canada Ltd. (Gulf) carried out a regional, reverse circulation (RC) overburden drilling program across most of the eastern Athabasca Basin. Over 350 overburden holes were drilled with the most anomalous hole being located on the Red Willow property; hole #333 returning an assay of 0.31% U3O8. Gulf recommended additional RC drilling to trace the uranium-rich overburden to its source, but that follow-up work was not completed.
Based on geophysical results performed by Purepoint, the source of the anomalous till may be a newly outlined EM conductor that lies only 200 metres northeast of drill hole #333. The strong conductor trends north-south, is 1.1 kilometres in length and appears to be crosscut by a northeast trending fault.
CBA Zone
In 1980, CanLake Explorations Ltd. drilled 14 holes (CBA-03 to 10 and CBA-15 to 20) in the northeast area of the Red Willow project. Favourable mineralization was intersected in the last hole of the program with hole CBA-20, located at the fold nose of a granitic dome and sedimentary rock contact, returning 0.17% U3O8 over 0.8 metres before being lost at a depth of 20 metres.
Red Willow Gallery
Red Willow Magnetics
Osprey Resistivity
Osprey Gravity
Osprey Cross Section
Osprey and Rabbit Lake Cross Sections - Same Scale
Geneva and Radon Resistivity
Geneva and Radon Gravity
333 Resistivity
Dancing Lake and Big Bay Resistivity
Topping Island - Historical Exploration
Topping Island VTEM Results
