La Jara Mesa

La Jara Mesa, a sandstone-hosted roll front style deposit is located in Grants Mineral Belt, New Mexico, the largest historical uranium district in the United States. The project is at the development stage and will be an underground operation. The project has a mineral resource estimate of 10.4 million pounds of uranium of measured and indicated (NI 43-101 compliant).

LOCATION

Cibola County, New Mexico in the Ambrosia Lake Mining District of the Grants Mineral Belt

KEY ATTRIBUTES:

• Discovered in 1983 – the last significant discovery to be made in the district
• Homestake Mining completed extensive work, including metallurgical test work, mine planning and mine permit approval
• Project has excellent grades and additional exploration potential
• The current resource stands at around 10.4 million pounds of U₃O₈ at a grade of 0.21 % U₃O₈. 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 (cut-off grade 0.05% U₃O₈)
• Received draft Environmental Impact Statement from U.S. Forest Services (USFS)

FUTURE OUTLOOK

Plan of Operations – completed and reviewed by USFS

Environmental Impact Statement – Final phase and public comment period

Permitting – Final permitting approval under way and waiting on Record of Decision

GEOLOGY

The La Jara Mesa uranium deposit is a roll front uranium deposit occurring within a sequence of classic 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.

HISTORY

Uranium was discovered in the Grants district of New Mexico in the early 1950s. Since the discovery considerable historic uranium exploration activity has been completed on La Jara Mesa by companies such as United Nuclear Corporation, Gulf Resources and Homestake primarily in the 70’s and 80’s. These companies performed exploration work, comprising of over 700 drill holes as well as metallurgical test work. Historical metallurgical studies on La Jara Mesa exhibited strong recoveries and potential underground access is quite straightforward via an inclined ramp from the valley floor. These tests determined that the mineralization would readily leach with acid and recoveries averaging 90% were achieved.