Toronto, Ontario, May 9, 2012 – Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. (TSX:PTU.V) is pleased to announce that drilling is scheduled to resume at the Smart Lake JV project next month. Purepoint operates the Smart Lake project in the Athabasca Basin under the terms of an agreement with Cameco that permits Purepoint to acquire up to a 50% interest in the project. Purepoint has earned to date an initial 23% interest in the project.
The 1,750 metre diamond drill program is scheduled to commence at Smart Lake in June, 2012 and will concentrate on the Shearwater electromagnetic (EM) conductor. During 2011, Purepoint completed a geochemical sampling survey over a portion of the Shearwater conductor utilizing techniques identified by the Canadian Mining Industry Research Organization (CAMIRO) – See Purepoint Press Release of June 15, 2011 http://www.purepoint.ca/news/?id=257.
“We’re excited to be moving a drill back to Smart Lake after receiving such encouraging results from our first pass drill program” said Scott Frostad, Purepoint’s VP of Exploration. “The intersection of a radioactive structure displaying intense alteration makes the Shearwater conductor a high-priority exploration target. The multi-element geochemical anomaly highlighting the surface trace of the conductor certainly supports this next stage of drilling.”
Highlights:
- Drilling will resume along the Shearwater conductor where initial drilling discovered a radioactive structure that displays multiple episodes of intense alteration;
- An independent review of the recent geochemical survey has substantiated a multi-element anomaly that follows the Shearwater conductor;
- The north-south trending geochemical anomaly is strongest 100 to 200 metres due south of SMT08-01; and
- The Shearwater conductor has been traced for over 1.0 kilometer by a ground EM survey and over 1.4 kilometers by an airborne EM survey.
Purepoint has budgeted for four to five drill holes to continue to test the Shearwater conductor. Aggressive Drilling of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan has been retained to conduct the 1,750 metre program. During 2008, Purepoint’s initial drill hole SMT08-01 intersected a weakly radioactive structure that displayed intense clay alteration, silicification and hematization while the strongest radioactivity was returned from a tension fracture in SMT08-06 assaying 1,600 ppm U over 0.1 metre.
An independent review of geochemical data collected at Smart Lake by Purepoint using the CAMIRO sampling technique was conducted by Peridot Geoscience Ltd. of Ottawa, Ontario. The review found that anomalous geochemistry generally follows the north-south trend of the Shearwater EM conductor. The north-south trending geochemical anomaly is strongest 100 to 200 metres due south of SMT08-01, has been traced for over 700 metres, and remains open to the south. A second geochemical anomaly, located 300 metres west of the main anomaly, was outlined where the survey grid was designed to cover a subtle magnetic depression.
Smart Lake Project
The Smart Lake property includes two claims with a total area of 9,800 hectares situated in the southwestern portion of the Athabasca Basin, approximately 60 km south of the former Cluff Lake mine. Depth to the unconformity is shallow, at zero to 350 metres. Aeromagnetic and electromagnetic patterns at Smart Lake reflect an extension of the patterns underlying the Shea Creek deposits (max. grade of 58.3% U3O8 over 3.5 m) 55 km north of the property. Exploration by Purepoint and Cameco has firmly established the presence of uranium mineralization, hydrothermal alteration and the location of a number of basement electromagnetic conductors that have never been drill tested.
About Purepoint
Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. is focused on the precision exploration of its thirteen projects in the Canadian Athabasca Basin. Purepoint proudly maintains project ventures in the Basin with the three largest uranium producers in the world, Cameco Corporation, AREVA and Rio Tinto. Established in the Athabasca Basin well before the initial resurgence in uranium earlier last decade, Purepoint is actively advancing a 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 Frostad, President and CEO
(416) 603-8368
www.purepoint.ca