PROJECTS
GIBBONS CREEK URANIUM PROJECT
Project Snapshot
Ownership:
ALX 100%
Size:
8 claims covering 13,864 ha.
Location:
NE Athabasca Basin ~3 km from the Hamlet of Stoney Rapids. Year-round all-weather road access and nearby commercial airport.
Regional Significance
- The historic Nisto Mine, which produced ~96 tonnes grading 1.38% U3O8 in the 1950s is located on the northwest side of the Black Lake fault near the property.
- The regionally significant Black Lake Fault found within the Snowbird Tectonic Zone is highly prospective for unconformity-style uranium deposits.
- Exploration has also identified a significant gold and platinum group metals showing named “Star”.
2024 Drilling Program
On April 25, 2024, ALX announced the completion of the 2024 winter drilling program at Gibbons Creek. The 2024 drilling program was designed to test for continuity of uranium mineralization first discovered in 1979 by Eldorado Nuclear and by ALX in 2015. Five holes totaling 849.44 metres were completed. Four of the five holes intersected uranium mineralization at or near the unconformity, based upon hand-held scintillometer readings on drill core, downhole gamma probe results, and visual observation of uranium minerals by ALX’s geological team.
Mineralization found in the 2024 drilling was intersected in two areas located 500 metres apart within a target area that ALX defined in late 2023 by carrying out a high-resolution magnetic survey and a Soil Gas Hydrocarbon (“SGH”) survey.
Hole GC24-04 (180 degree azimuth / -60 degree dip) exhibited the strongest radiometric response of the program where uranium mineralization was intersected over 1.1 metres from 107.17 to 108.27 metres beginning immediately at and below the unconformity at 107.18 metres. The Athabasca formation sandstone immediately above the mineralization was strongly bleached from an unaltered dusky maroon colour to white, indicative of hydrothermal activity in the location of the drill hole. A Mount Sopris 2PGA-1000 downhole gamma probe measured a radioactive peak of 8,662 counts per second (“cps”) within the mineralized interval (see photo below), which shows black blebs of uranium mineralization (likely pitchblende) within dark red hematite alteration and closely associated with lesser amounts of yellow limonite alteration.
The blebs of uranium mineralization appear to follow both the foliation of the rock and to spread along some of the fine fractures. Zones of strong fracturing and fault breccias, variably strongly hematitic (paleoweathered), argillized or chloritized, were intermittently encountered down to approximately 142.0 metres.
Table 1 below summarizes the downhole depths and downhole gamma probe readings (using a 500 cps cut-off) for the four 2024 drill holes that intersected uranium mineralization:
Table 1. Gibbons Creek 2024 – Downhole Gamma Probe Measurements (Mount Sopris 2PGA-1000)
|
Drill |
Total Depth |
Depth to |
Mineralized Zones |
Average |
Maximum |
||
|
From |
To |
Interval |
|||||
|
GC24-01* |
157.0 |
77.8 |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
|
GC24-02 |
212.0 |
108.4 |
109.1 |
109.7 |
0.6 |
1,803 |
3,281 |
|
GC24-03 |
186.4 |
108.5 |
109.2 |
110.8 |
1.6 |
1,539 |
2,217 |
|
GC24-04 |
177.0 |
107.18 |
107.17 |
108.27 |
1.1 |
2,880 |
8,662 |
|
GC24-05 |
173.0 |
102.36 |
103.2 |
103.7 |
0.5 |
1,365 |
2,328 |
*The first hole of the 2024 program, GC24-01, showed a normal radioactive response from the conglomeratic sandstone at the unconformity and did not intersect significant uranium mineralization.
Prior to commencement of the 2024 drilling program, ALX carried out a comprehensive review of Gibbons Creek historical exploration data and has integrated that information with the high-resolution magnetic and SGH geochemical surveys completed in November 2023. The historical data and the results of ALX’s ground surveys on the 2023 exploration grid show important characteristics of the Project’s potential to host uranium mineralization, which is demonstrated by the mineralization found in ALX’s 2015 hole GC15-03 (0.13% U3O8 over 0.23 metres from 107.67 metres to 107.90 metres), in Eldorado’s 1979 hole GC-15 (0.179% U3O8 over 0.13 metres from 134.11 to 134.24 metres), and in the holes drilled in the 2024 program.
Further drilling is recommended at the Project to search for fault offsets in the area of GC24-04, which can act as structural traps for the deposition of uranium mineralization. All core samples were shipped to Saskatchewan Research Council Geoanalytical Laboratories (“SRC”) in Saskatoon, SK for geochemical analysis. A second group of samples were sent to Rekasa Rocks Inc. in Saskatoon, SK, for infrared spectroscopy analysis to determine the nature and quantity of clay alteration present in the core samples. Analytical results will be released following their receipt, compilation and interpretation.
2024 Option Earn-in Transaction
Gibbons Creek is currently the subject of an option earn-in transaction with Trinex Lithium Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Trinex Minerals Limited (“Trinex”), which is a publicly-traded mineral exploration company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Under the terms of binding letter agreement signed in February 2024, Trinex can earn an initial 51% interest and up to a 75% participating interest in the Project in two stages over a period of five years by making cash payments and common shares payments to ALX, and by incurring exploration expenditures at the Project (see ALX news release dated February 28, 2024).
Statement of Qualified Person
Geochemical analyses on samples from ALX’s 2015 drill hole described in this disclosuere were carried out by Activation Laboratories in Ancaster, Ontario using Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (“ICP-MS”) methods on both partial and total digestions. Eldorado’s 1979 geochemical analyses were carried out by Bondar-Clegg & Company Ltd. Laboratories, Ottawa, Ontario using Atomic Absorption, Colormetric, Fluorometric and XRF methods, which were standard methods of that exploration era.
All drill core samples from the 2024 program were shipped to SRC in Saskatoon, SK, an ISO/IEC 17025/2005 and Standards Council of Canada certified analytical laboratory. ALX requests multi-element analysis by ICP-MS and ICP-OES using total (HF:NHO3:HClO4) and partial digestion (HNO3:HCl), boron by fusion, and U3O8 wt% assay by ICP-OES where applicable. One half of the split core samples are retained and the other half cores are sent to the SRC for analyses. Blanks, standard reference materials, and repeats are inserted into the sample stream at regular intervals by ALX and SRC in accordance with industry-standard quality assurance/quality control (“QA/QC”) procedures. Uranium assay samples will be conducted on samples that return greater than 500 ppm uranium in the initial ICP analyses.
All reported depths and intervals are drill hole depths and intervals, unless otherwise noted, and do not represent true thicknesses, which have yet to be determined. Readers are cautioned that scintillometer and gamma probe measurements of drill core are not directly indicative of uranium grades in the sample measured and should be considered only as a preliminary indication of the presence of radioactive materials.
The technical information in this disclosure has been reviewed and approved by Robert Campbell, P.Geo., who is a Qualified Person in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101.
Highlights of the 2022 Drilling Program
- Anomalous uranium values were detected in the Athabasca sandstone in all three drill holes. Ten-metre composite samples returned up to 8.29 parts per million (“ppm”) uranium from a partial digestion (“U-p”).
- There were three composite samples in hole GC22-01 (1.46 to 1.63 ppm), six composite samples in hole GC22-02 (1.29 to 8.29 ppm), and three composite samples in hole GC2-03 (1.46 to 3.99 ppm) that are considered anomalous. All of these samples occur in the lower portions of the sandstone.
- The U-p result of 8.29 ppm is approximately 16 times greater than typical background levels of U-p in the Athabasca Group sandstone (approximately 0.5 ppm). The analytical results suggest that uranium-bearing fluids were present in the area of the Gibbons Creek drill holes.
- Statistical analysis also shows that there are anomalous concentrations of the pathfinder elements boron, cobalt, copper, nickel, and lead associated with the anomalous U-p results. These pathfinder elements are commonly used as guides to discovery of unconformity-type uranium deposits and provide further evidence of the presence of fluid movement potentially related to a uranium mineralizing system.
- Elevated gamma probe peaks in drill hole GC22-02 (964 counts per second (“cps”) at 298.36 metres and 1,296 cps at 300.91 m) correlate with mudstone beds that show iron redox alteration patterns around the contacts between the sandstone and the mudstone beds. Selective interval samples over the mudstone beds and at the contacts returned U-p values of 36.1 ppm (298.30 to 298.70 metres) and 21.3 ppm (300.71 to 300.96 metres) over the mudstone beds, and 29.1 ppm (300.96 to 301.46 metres) from the sandstone immediately below the mudstone beds. These results are clear indicators of uranium remobilization by fluid flow in the sandstone.
- Drill hole GC22-01, located along the southwestern portion of the Zinger Conductor, intersected pyrite, siderite, and bleaching high in the sandstone column.
- Sudoite, a chloritic alteration mineral known to be associated with uranium mineralization, was identified by SWIR analysis in the sandstone of drill hole GC22-01 just above the unconformity.
- A zone of moderately graphitic pelitic gneiss was intersected in drill hole GC22-01 between 396 and 400 metres, approximately 41 metres below the unconformity, and is associated with a basement fault.
ALX believes that further drilling is warranted at Gibbons Creek as follow-up to the 2022 drill results and also in the area of historical drill hole GC13-05 located in the eastern part of the Project (0.143% U3O8 over 0.23 metres beginning at a shallow depth of 107.67 metres).
Exploration Summary 2014-2021
- Maiden 14 hole drill program totalling 2,550m completed in 2015. Four drill holes encountered anomalous radioactivity near the unconformity. Strong hydrothermal alteration and pathfinder geochemistry (B, Co, Ni) observed.
- In September 2017, Geotech Ltd. completed a ZTEM™ survey over Gibbons Creek to confirm and update the findings of 2005 Mega Tem survey results carried out by a previous operator.
- Star Lake gold and platinum group metals showing first discovered by a predecessor company in 2013-14. In 2020, grab samples from outcrop at Star assayed as high as 3.58 g/t Au, 412 ppb Palladium and 122 ppb platinum. It is believed this precious metals showing may be part of a larger mineralized system that extends from the Company’s Firebird Nickel property. Follow-up exploration work will be required to help better define the preliminary findings to date.
National Instrument 43-101 Disclosure
The technical information on this web page has been reviewed and approved by Sierd Eriks, P.Geo. (Retired), Technical Advisor to ALX, and/or Jody Dahrouge, P.Geo., Technical Advisor to ALX, who are Qualified Persons in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in NI 43-101. Readers are cautioned that some of the technical information described on this web page is historical in nature; however, the historical information is deemed credible and was produced by professional geologists/geoscientists in the years discussed.