Overview
The Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan presents exceptional discovery and exploration opportunities for companies looking to enter the thriving uranium market. Uranium is poised for significant growth and the expected deficit in the supply side will create opportunities in the market. With new reactors continually coming online to meet demand and a limited number of suppliers to fill it, looking to high-value mining jurisdictions for uranium is one of the best strategies for companies trying to get ahead of the crowd.
Purepoint Uranium Group (TSXV:PTU,OTCQB:PTUUF) has been a major player in the Athabasca Basin for some time now, actively acquiring and operating an exploration pipeline of nine advanced projects, including its flagship Hook Lake project.
The Hook Lake project is a joint venture with two of the largest uranium mining majors in the world, Cameco Corporation and Orano Canada. With 21 percent ownership of Hook Lake, Purepoint acts as the operator of the joint venture.
The company has another high-value joint venture with its partner Cameco Corporation in its Smart Lake project, where Purepoint, as the operator, holds 27 percent ownership.
Outside its joint venture projects with the world’s largest uranium suppliers, Purepoint holds seven projects in the eastern Athabasca Basin, all 100-percent-owned with clearly defined uranium-bearing targets that have been safely maintained to maximize their value in anticipation of continued uranium price revival.
As the market begins an exciting bull rally in uranium, Purepoint is emerging as the pre-eminent uranium explorer in the world’s richest uranium district. The company has an aggressive exploration program underway, including:
Drilling Hook Lake Joint Venture Project: Q1 – 2024Geophysics at Smart Lake Joint Venture Project: Q1 – 2024Geophysics and mapping at Tabbernor ProjectField work and drilling at Red Willow ProjectDrilling at Carson Project
Purepoint’s leadership team includes independent, highly qualified experts with deep provincial and regulatory ties, as well as decades of experience in the Athabasca Basin. Together, their expertise in mining, finance and exploration prime the company for exceptional growth and uranium discovery potential.
Company Highlights
Purepoint is advancing several projects toward discovery in the Athabasca Basin, the world’s richest uranium region.Two high-value partnerships with Cameco Corporation and Orano Canada, with joint ventures on the Hook Lake and Smart Lake projects.Apart from Hook Lake and Smart Lake, the company operates an additional seven, 100-percent-owned, highly prospective uranium projects in the Eastern Athabasca Basin, including the Red Willow, Turnor Lake, Henday Lake, Tabbernor Project, Tower Project, Carson Project and Russell South Project.The company has a world-class leadership team with unparalleled experience and exploration expertise in the Athabasca Basin.
Key Projects
Hook Lake Project
The Hook Lake property is located within the Patterson Uranium district and has nine claims totalling 28,598 hectares. The project is jointly owned by Cameco, Orano Canada and Purepoint Uranium. Operated by Purepoint since 2007, the project has seen significant discoveries and exploration campaigns.
Highlights of discovery on the property include the Spitfire high-grade discovery which revealed 53.3 percent uranium oxide over 1.3 meters, including a 10-meter interval of 10.3 percent uranium mineralization measurements. Three prospective structural “corridors” have been defined on the property, each consisting of multiple electromagnetic (EM) conductors confirmed by drilling.
In 2023, Purepoint completed 2,710 meters of drilling in six holes to test the main conductive trend at the Carter Corridor. As this was its first pass drilling, the main conductive trend was tested using 800-meter step-outs towards the north to identify the most prospective geology.
The 2023 drilling program ended on a very high note with a uranium intercept associated with boron that is reminiscent of our early discoveries at the Spitfire discovery.
Follow-up drilling is expected to begin in January 2024 to follow up on hole CRT23-05 which returned an assay of 0.08 percent U3O8 (671 ppm uranium) over 0.4 meters (319.1 to 319.5 meters) from a 15-meter graphitic shear zone (318 to 333 meters downhole depth) below the unconformity (283 meters).
Red Willow Project
The 100-percent-owned Red Willow Project is situated on the eastern edge of the Athabasca Basin close to several uranium deposits including Orano’s mined-out JEB deposit, located approximately 10 km to the southwest, and Cameco’s Eagle Point deposit that is approximately 10 kilometers due south. The project covers approximately 40,116 hectares and consists of 17 mineral claims.
Three of the 23 conductive areas, Osprey, Geneva and Radon, have returned anomalous uranium intercepts and were the focus of exploration programs conducted by Purepoint between 2021 and 2023.
About 3,854 meters of diamond drilling were completed in 15 holes at the Red Willow Project across the Osprey, Geneva and Radon Lake zones in 2023. The 2023 winter drill program continued to follow up on radioactivity along EM conductors that are shared with the neighboring Orano/Denison Wolly project to the west for both basement and unconformity-hosted economic uranium mineralization. As they continue to identify favorable geology, wide-spread alteration and elevated radioactivity across the project, the company will extend its efforts to the additional nine target zones defined on the property.
Smart Lake Project
Purepoint, as operator, holds a 27-percent ownership of the Smart Lake project in joint venture with Cameco Corp.
The Smart Lake property includes two claims with a total area of 9,860 hectares situated in the southwestern portion of the Athabasca Basin, approximately 60 km south of the former Cluff Lake mine and 18 kilometers west-northwest of Purepoint’s Hook Lake JV Project.
Depth to the unconformity, where it occurs, is relatively shallow at less than 350 meters.
Aeromagnetic and electromagnetic patterns at Smart Lake reflect an extension of the patterns underlying the Shea Creek deposits (indicated resource of 68 million lbs at 1.50 percent U3O8; UEC PR Jan 2023) 55 kilometers north of the property. Exploration by Purepoint has firmly established the presence of anomalous uranium and hydrothermal alteration. Numerous priority target areas, where EM conductors are cross-cut by east-west structures, are yet to be drill-tested.
Like the Kianna fault at Shea Creek, known uranium mineralization at the Smart Lake project is associated with the intersection of the east-west Arthur Fault and north-south-striking fluid/chemical traps including the Shearwater conductor and chloritized mafic orthogneiss. The occurrence of low-grade uranium mineralization along the Arthur Fault away from Shearwater conductor underscore the need to target east-west structures both at the intersection with conductive anomalies and at magnetically interpreted lithological contacts.
Additional east-west striking faults (Groomes Lake and Cristobal) have been interpreted from examination of airborne magnetic and electromagnetic surveys. These faults are spatially related to strong EM conductors identified in both airborne and ground-based geophysical surveys.
The 2024 exploration program is scheduled for Q1-2024 and will include transient electromagnetic (EM) surveys targeting the Groomes Lake conductor.
Turnor Lake Project
The 100-percent-owned Turnor Lake project is situated on the Eastern side of the Basin along the mine trend that lies in the transition between the Wollaston and Mudjatik geological domains. The project is geologically tied to Cameco’s La Rocque high-grade showings and IsoEnergy’s Hurricane deposit. The property covers approximately 9,705 hectares and consists of five mineral claims.
In the fall of 2022, Purepoint completed a drill campaign to initiate first-pass testing of the 2.3-kilometer-long Serin EM conductor which lies adjacent to and on-trend with IsoEnergy’s Hurricane deposit along the LaRocque corridor. The Hurricane deposit is located approximately 10 kilometers west-southwest of the Turnor Lake project boundary and has an indicated mineral resource of 48.61 million lbs of U3O8 based on 63,800 tonnes grading 34.5 percent U3O8 (IsoEnergy PR; Jul 18, 2022). Two drill holes were completed along the Serin EM conductor, approximately 750 meters apart, and one hole was lost for a total of 1,138 meters.
The initial hole, SL22-02, encountered unconformity at 290 meters and intersected graphitic-pyritic pelitic gneiss between 336 to 365 meters that returned 745 cps over 0.4 meters from the downhole gamma probe. The hole also intersected radioactive pegmatite dykes, one returning an average of 825 cps over 14.6 meters. Drill hole SL22-03 failed to explain the targeted EM conductor or intersect notable radioactivity.
Management Team
Chris Frostad – President and CEO
Chris Frostad is a founding partner bringing over 40 years of expertise to his position as president and CEO. He led public companies in both the technology and mining and metals industries.
Throughout his career, Frostad has been instrumental in the development and building of a variety of high-growth, early-stage, public and private companies.
Before Purepoint, he held numerous senior positions in the technology industry including CEO-in-residence of a Toronto-based venture capital firm. Frostad is a chartered accountant and a chartered professional accountant who began his career in international taxation with Deloitte.
Scott Frostad – VP of Exploration
Scott Frostad’s experience in the mining industry throughout Canada spans over three decades. He brings to his position as VP of exploration a background in mineral exploration with renowned mining companies such as Lac Minerals, Teck and Placer Dome. Most recently, he was the environmental specialist for Cogema Resources and managed environmental issues at both the Cluff Lake and McClean Lake Uranium Mines in Northern Saskatchewan.
Frostad is a graduate of Western University with a B.Sc. in geology and holds an M.A.Sc. in mining and mineral process engineering from the University of British Columbia. He is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia and the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan.
Ram Ramachandran – CFO
Before his position as CFO with Purepoint, Ram Ramachandran brings an 11-year tenure as deputy director and associate chief accountant with the Ontario Securities Commission. Most recently, Ramachandran provided advisory services in the area of litigation/compliance to numerous companies. To his credit, Ramachandran conceived, developed and launched the Canadian Securities Reporting Advisor – an online compliance tool for public companies.
Linda Tong – GIS Specialist
Linda Tong has been Purepoint Uranium’s GIS specialist since January 2006. She has over 20 years of experience in GIS application, GIS development and computer programming.
Tong is a graduate of Wuhan University with a B.Sc. in computer science & application.
Jeanny So – Corporate Communications
Jeanny So has over 20 years of experience in operations, investor relations, sales and marketing in the financial industry and has executed corporate communication programs for several private and publicly-listed companies.
