Contact Us | Legal


USA

La Jara Mesa

The La Jara Mesa deposit is located 21 kilometres from Grants within the San Mateo Mountains in the Southern part of New Mexico, and has a near arid environment (10 inches annual rainfall). The mesa where the deposit occurs is 2,440 metres to 2,530 metres above sea level. Homestake previously had a mill within the Grants mining camp which has since been demolished and the site rehabilitated.

Uranium was discovered in the Grants district New Mexico in the early 1950’s. Work commenced in the La Jara area at this time. This consisted mainly of prospecting.

In 1967 Homestake acquired the project area. They drilled 86 drill holes between 1967 and 1971 in a joint venture with UNC. At this time only a few high grade intersections were made and the project was abandoned.

In 1974 the area was restaked and vended to Gulf Mineral Resources. Gulf Mineral Resources completed 71 drill holes and returned the project to its owner in 1980.

Midas International (“Midas”) obtained the leases in 1980 and an exploration program begun on behalf of Power Resources Inc. The discovery hole in Section 12 was drilled in November 1980. Following this Power drilled 505 rotary and percussion drill holes and 11 diamond holes between Nov 1980 and July 1983. In 1983 Homestake became involved in the venture and drilled 3 rotary holes and 7 diamond holes in July 1983 to confirm previous drilling.

Homestake completed extractive metallurgical and amenability tests on drill core both at this time at the nearby Homestake Mill (alkaline leach tests) and at the Kerr McGee Nuclear Corporation Mill (acid leach tests) located in the Grants District. These tests determined that the mineralization would readily leach with acid and recoveries averaging 90% were achieved.

An independent NI 43-101 compliant Resource calculation on La Jara Mesa was completed in 2006 and amended in July 2007 by Douglas Peters.

Measured and Indicated: 1,555,899 tons @ O.23 % U3O8 7,257,817 pounds U3O8
Inferred: 793,161 tons @ 0.20 % U3O8 3,172,653 pounds U3O8

Drill Location Map (PDF 304kB)

Technical Report on La Jara Mesa Uranium Property (PDF 4.1Mb)

Drilling at La Jara Mesa Project, December 2006

Geology:
La Jara Mesa uranium deposit is a roll front uranium deposit occurring within a sequence of clastic Jurassic and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. Tertiary basaltic lavas occur unconformably on top of the cretaceous sediments.

Uranium mineralization at La Jara occurs within 4 levels of the Poison Canyon sandstone member of the Morrison formation, however the only significant deposits are known within the lower two units. Within the district the Marquez Mine produced 656,000 tonnes grading 0.26 % U3O8. This deposit occurs 4 miles north of La Jara.

To date 4 different deposits are known at La Jara Dena Rich, Dena Rich east as well as the smaller L Connection and Section 1 deposits.

RESOURCES AT LA JARA MESA.

In 2006 M. Hassan Alief completed an independent NI 43-101 compliant Resource calculation on La Jara Mesa. The current resource stands at around 10.4 million pounds of U3O8 at a grade of 0.21 % U3O8. This is equivalent to 4 pounds U3O8 per ton.

Measured and Indicated: 1,555,900 tons @ O.23 % U3O8 7,250,000 pounds U3O8
Inferred: 793,000 tons @ 0.20 % U3O8 3,172,000 pounds U3O8

WORK COMPLETED DURING 2006

During late 2006 Laramide completed a 9 hole drill program for 6,393 feet of drilling, at La Jara Mesa to confirm previous grades and to collect material for metallurgical test work. This drilling intercepted significant mineralization with the best results below:

  • LR-12-1C 16 feet @ 0.242 U3O8
  • LR-12-5C 13 feet @ 0.719 % U3O8
  • LR-12-8C 14.4 feet @ 0.513 % U3O8





La Sal

The La Sal project is located within The White Mesa district in Utah. It is conveniently located 55 miles from Denison Mines Limited's (TSX: DML) Blanding Mill, one of only 4 permitted mills within the USA. There is also a 1,200 metre long access drive into the deposit and if a permit is obtained is ready to go into production. Homestake completed a positive feasibility study on the project in 1978 and was ready to place the project into production when the price collapsed.

Denison has stated their strategy is to place the Blanding Mill back into operation for the milling of conventional ores, and process their own feed as well as toll treating other companies' feed. La Sal is a perfect source for this mill, with good quality high grade ore.