Geologically tied to Cameco's La Rocque High Grade Showings and IsoEnergy's Hurricane Deposit
About Turnor Lake
The 100%-owned Turnor Lake project consists of 4 claims totaling 9,705 hectares on the eastern side of Canada’s Athabasca Basin. Four distinct exploration areas have been defined by Purepoint – the Serin Conductor, the Laysan Zone, the Turnor Lake Zone and the Turaco Zone.
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- The Serin conductor lies within the La Rocque corridor that hosts Orano Canada Inc.’s Alligator prospect (3.8% U3O8 over 10.5m in hole WF-08), Cameco Corp’s La Rocque showing (29.9% U3O8 over 7.0m) and, most recently, IsoEnergy Ltd.’s Hurricane deposit (Indicated Mineral Resource of 48.61 million lbs of U3O8 based on 63,800 tonnes grading 34.5% U3O8; IsoEnergy PR; Jul 18, 2022)
- The Laysan Zone hosts historic hole OD-1 that returned 0.06% U3O8 over 3.4m
- The Turnor Lake Zone is a target associated with numerous high-grade showings to the south, including Orano Canada’s HLH-50 (2.7% U3O8 over 1.2 m)
- The Turaco Zone has undergone considerable geophysical surveying carried out by Purepoint and first pass drilling
Turnor Lake is most notably associated with the Kelsey Dome Granite, a pinwheel shaped magnetic high encircled with clusters of graphitic conductors and numerous high-grade uranium showings. The La Rocque Uranium Corridor bisects the northern portion of the project area and lies along the western edge of the Kelsey Dome Formation.
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Extensive geophysical programs have allowed Purepoint to outline approximately 34 kilometres of conductors throughout the Turnor Lake Project. Most recently, Purepoint created a 3D lithological model from interpreted cross-sections, drill hole information and surface/bedrock geology. Geophysical data was added in tight integration with the geological model and newly created geophysical inversions, allowing the geophysical data to be represented by a 3D distribution of physical rock properties. Using GOCAD Mining suite Targeting Workflow by Mira Geoscience, the geological, geochemical and geophysical datasets were then integrated and the exploration drill targets were refined.
Serin Conductor
The Serin conductor is interpreted to be the northeastern extension of the conductor system which hosts Cameco Corp’s high grade uranium mineralization at La Rocque Lake (29.9% U3O8 over 7.0 m in hole Q22-40) and IsoEnergy Ltd.’s Laroque East project which hosts their recently discovered high-grade Hurricane Zone (38.8% U3O8 over 7.5 m in hole LE20-76). Serin is a near-vertical conductor extending northeast-southwest for at least 2.2 km and is interpreted to lie at a shallow depth of 400 to 450m below surface.
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Results from EM surveys conducted by Purepoint suggest the conductor is offset by approximately 150 metres at the same location that a seismic survey, conducted by Saskatchewan Energy and Mines in 1984, reflects a significant down drop thrust fault in the basement topography. The MacArthur River Deposit, one of the world’s largest uranium mines, was formed at the site of a similar basement step-fault that likely focused mineralized fluids.
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Laysan Zone
Anchoring the Laysan Zone is diamond drill hole OD-1, completed by Saskatchewan Mining Development Corp. in 1983. The hole returned 0.06% U3O8 over 3.4 m within hydrothermally altered pelitic basement rock immediately below the unconformity. Anomalous arsenic, nickel, and cobalt over 0.5 m were associated with the alteration.
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First pass drilling performed by Purepoint has outlined hydrothermal alteration associated with anomalous uranium in the sandstone (e.g., TL-03 with 22 metres of clay alteration and 29 metres of 34 parts per million U). By way of comparison, the Athabasca sandstone has a consistent background uranium content of only three to five parts per million.
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Turnor Lake Zone
Located in the South East corner of the project is the Turnor Lake Zone; a 2.7 km long conductor lying coincident with the long narrow Turnor Lake.
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Anomalous uranium has also been intersected one-half kilometre south of the property in Cogema (now Orano Canada Inc.) drill hole HLH-50 (2.7% U3O8 over 1.2 m). The underlying basement rocks in this hole consisted of altered, graphitic and pyritic sediments that were highly fractured.
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Turaco Zone
To the South of the Laysan conductors lie a perpendicular cluster of graphitic conductors within a magnetic low referred to as the Turaco Zone.
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Numerous ground geophysical surveys have been conducted by Purepoint including a three-dimensional resistivity survey, a time domain electromagnetic survey and a gravity survey. Initial drilling of 6,024 metres demonstrated that anomalous uranium mineralization is spatially associated with the unconformity and is locally present within basement structures. Highlights include Drill hole TL-19 that returned 1230 ppm U (0.15% U3O8) over 0.12 metres just a few centimetres above the unconformity while drill hole TL-31 returned 641 ppm U over 10 cm from a structure within the basement rock.
