South Wyoming's Best Uranium Discovery?

In yesterday's chat with Dr. Robert Rich, we bent he had the accreditation and industry ability to accommodate Yellowcake Mining (YCKM) with believability in the uranium space, But, what about the geology? Abounding juniors accept skated assimilate the alarm by application a 'big name' to allure investors. Too often, the property's cartography is defective the factors which would beforehand to absolute uranium mining. Often, the industry-celebrity name is almost accustomed with the company's property.
To our surprise, Dr. Rich was carefully accustomed with Yellowcake Mining's Juniper Ridge acreage in southern Wyoming. "I had looked at Juniper Ridge in the backward 1970s and aboriginal 1980s if it was endemic by Urangesellschaft (UG), a German company," he told us. "At the time there were still beginning accessible cuts from antecedent accessible pit mining there. There was a bit of uranium produced during the endure bazaar aeon of uranium, but I was afflicted with the abeyant for it to become a abundant bigger operation. And again I didn't apprehend annihilation about it for over twenty years."
Juniper Ridge Bigger Than We Thought
He explained some of the assembly costs and geology, anecdotic Juniper Ridge. "I anticipate there was a achievability abstraction that gave favorable after-effects if the bazaar was about $40/pound," Dr. Rich said. "Its mineralization is in pods. If I was there before, it looked like I was in a behemothic prairie dog village."
What affectionate of mining would yield abode at Juniper Ridge, then? "I anticipate that's one of the affidavit why humans achievement it will be ISR-amenable," Rich answered. "Maybe you put a able-bodied acreage on anniversary of the pods and get out what you can at a low assembly and low processing cost." Because of the property's history, Dr. Rich wouldn't aphorism out accepted mining. "We accept 2,000 assignment holes which charge to be re-analyzed."
So we batten with David Frank, the Strathmore Minerals geologist who has been allegory about one-half of those assignment holes on account of joint-venture accomplice Yellowcake Mining. "We're accepting aloft average, analytic acceptable grades," Frank told us. "I'm not disappointed." Frank circling through abstracts during our blast interview, citation some of the aberrant holes: 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5.
"Some are in the percents," Strathmore Minerals (STHJF) admiral David Miller told us. "According to the industry, Juniper Ridge was the best analysis fabricated in southern Wyoming. It was the alone one with cogent uranium mineralization in the Browns Park Formation." The accumulation encompasses northeastern Utah, northwestern Colorado, and south-central Wyoming. "It is a hardly adolescent accumulation than the Wind River or Wasatch formations," said Miller, who was afresh appear as administrator of Yellowcake Mining. "This is addition tertiary age sandstone accumulation in Wyoming which contains abundant uranium mineralization."
Miller rated this accumulation third in the state. He explained the Wind Rivers formation, with Gas Hills and Shirley Basin, was Wyoming's a lot of abounding uranium producer, followed by the Wasatch formation, which includes Powder River and the Red Desert.
Historically, Juniper Ridge was the website of 12 baby accessible pit mines. UG about brought the acreage into assembly in the aboriginal 1980s. There were pit designs and it was reportedly permitted. Machinery was accessible to breach ground. UG had accustomed the activity the blooming light, if the basal fell out of the uranium market. Later, the Italian company, AGIP bought, acquisitive for a turnaround in the uranium price. The uranium amount aridity lasted best than expected, and it anesthetized through to added hands.
As the uranium amount appeared to be branch higher, Strathmore Minerals acquired the property. In mid March, Yellowcake Mining optioned an 80-percent absorption in the property, which it will acquire by spending $8 actor over a five-year aeon to beforehand Juniper Ridge. As allotment of the transaction, Yellowcake issued nine actor shares to Strathmore.
Strathmore accumulated secretary Bob Hemmerling told us, "This is allotment of our accumulated activity to monetize our non-core assets so that we can beforehand our flagship projects." Others we batten with accepted this was acceptable to become an bread-and-butter uranium mining operation.
"We are too aboriginal days, but I would feel appealing assured in a $60 to $70 (uranium price) bazaar of not accepting any botheration bringing it on-line and authoritative money," Dr. Rich abreast us. "I anticipate it has abeyant to become a medium-size ambassador - maybe a brace actor pounds a year. The mineralization is not all that deep."
Juniper Ridge is a abreast apparent drop with uranium mineralization starting at the apparent and active a few hundred anxiety to depth. "The drop was apparent by acrimonious up apparent rocks with a Geiger counter," said David Frank. It ability be mined by a aggregate of accessible pit for the bank mineralization and ISR for uranium at depth. "Possibly by abundance leaching bags of ore, "Rich said. "Or if you went underground, you could abundance bleed and aerate - like abundance leaching 'in place.' This was done already at New Lake Mines in Canada's Elliot Lake region."
Miller acicular out, "We apprehend to assignment the property, for allowing purposes, in 2007. It was beneath development to become an open-pit mine, afore it was put on 'stand by' by UG." Abstracts accumulation is advancing to assay added than 2,000 holes ahead drilled.
Near-Term Uranium Assembly in Wyoming's Gas Hills
"It's a absolute activity property," Strathmore's John DeJoia told us from the company's Santa Fe, New Mexico allowing office. "Developing it will accompany a lot of new applications to the ISR (in situ recovery) uranium industry." DeJoia is carefully accustomed with the affairs at Sky because he had evaluated the property's abeyant during the endure uranium cycle. "It's a adequately aboveboard ISR mining project," DeJoia added. "Sky will be simple conduct because of the formation."
Located in Fremont County abreast Lander and Riverton, Wyoming (near Strathmore's U.S. headquarters), the Sky acreage is a almost baby uranium drop - about one actor pounds U3O8. Why bother with something this small? "It's an ideal ISR acreage to acquaint new technologies," DeJoia said. Uranium mined at Sky would be candy through a small, bargain plant. "It would be modular and carriageable with new technologies," he added. DeJoia explained this could become a new development for absolute limited ion barter technology.
This may arresting a bigger acreage development. "I anticipate it will be developed in affiliation with added backdrop in the area," DeJoia speculated. An April 10th account absolution appear it would be the aboriginal of Strathmore's backdrop to activate abstracts accumulating for allowing purposes. Strathmore has several added Wyoming projects listed on the company's website.
At aboriginal we anticipation the Sky acreage was a throwaway, like added backdrop tossed like doggie biscuits by the college bazaar cap uranium juniors to barking new uranium inferior entrants. We talked permeability with David Miller about Sky. "The Sky acreage has about eight-fold the permeability of Christensen Ranch," Miller confided. He would know, because he was arch geologist at this ISR uranium operation for four years. "Christensen Ranch had 300 millidarcy; Sky has 2500 millidarcy," Miller said.
Millidarcy is acclimated to admeasurement the permeability of a uranium cycle foreground deposit. The college the darcy (1.0 or greater shows acceptable promise), the added absorbent the deposit. This assemblage of altitude is broadly acclimated in petroleum engineering and geology. We discussed the accent of permeability in our basal ISR series.
This may explain why both companies are aflame by collective developments in Wyoming. Geologically, both Strathmore Minerals acreage assets accept greater prospectivity than we aboriginal thought. These present the cogent befalling Dr. Robert Rich explained to us in Allotment One of this series.
And what about the hundreds of annoying juniors which accept sprung up to abduction the apprenticed investor? "I anticipate that apparently bisected the juniors are just opportunistic," Dr. Rich told us. "That's the attributes of ambitious activity--looking for the next horse to ride, like the pony express." Rich added explained, "You abrasion out one, you get on the other. I anticipate there are so abounding companies that apparently had gold in their name above-mentioned to them accepting uranium in their name. If the next affair comes along, whether it's nickel or whatever, they'll change the aggregation name and do something different."