NickelX targets uranium riches with new claims in Canada’s historic Elliot Lake district

NickelX (ASX: NKL) has released initial assay results from four highly-prospective uranium targets in Canada’s Elliot Lake district it recently secured the rights to via low-cost claim staking.

Sparse historical drilling within NickelX’s tenure is reported to have intersected prospective, mineralised conglomerates which returned assays of 9 metres at 100 parts per million uranium oxide equivalent from the Inspiration occurrence, 1.8m at 230ppm uranium oxide equivalent from Crazy Lake, 0.8m at 900ppm uranium oxide equivalent from Mattaini and 0.8m at 200ppm uranium oxide equivalent from Rawhide.

The tenements – collectively known as the Elliot Lake uranium project – are located in Ontario along strike from the prolific district that has historically contained 13 underground mines.

Past production totalled 360 million pounds grading 1060ppm uranium oxide from the mines, which were active between 1955 and 1996.

The largest was the Denison mine which measured 19.5 kilometres in length and up to 8km in width with individual reefs up to 4m thick.

Multi-cell claims

Elliot Lake comprises 30 multi-cell mining claims over a land area of 129 square kilometres.

It is considered to have good year-round access and is close to infrastructure, service centres and electrical and water supplies.

It is also near to the world’s largest commercial uranium refinery at Blind River, owned by Cameco.

First pass geological review by NickelX has identified three priority target areas – two of which have known mineralisation – over a combined 35km strike of prospective tenure.

The highest priority is at the Crazy Lake-Gods Lake trend that sits along strike from the large Quirke No 1 mine.

The mine has historically exploited uranium-bearing conglomerate beds measuring 13km long and up to 5.5km wide.

Conglomerate-hosted uranium

NickelX is hoping to target conglomerate-hosted uranium along the underexplored interpreted extensions to the historic major uranium mining centre at Elliot Lake.

These are also areas where the mineralisation is stratabound with good consistency in grade and thickness over wide areas and is typically continuous and predictable.

The company is employing uranium experts from CSA Global and Southern Geoscience to compile all available geological, geophysical and geochemical data for the purposes of defining high-priority drilling targets.

It is also in discussions with key stakeholders, including relevant First Nations groups, in relation to its proposed work programs.

District exploration

Past exploration in the Elliot Lake district was initially carried out from 1948 to 1957 at a time when no public commodity markets existed for uranium.

Exploration resumed in 1965, driven by the expansion of nuclear power plants in North America and continued until the late 1970s.

Little work was undertaken during the 1980s during a period of depressed uranium prices.

Work conducted in the years following that period focused on expansion drilling and further development of existing resources at the district’s various deposits.

Elliot Lake history

Uranium exploration within NickelX’s new project area at Elliot Lake occurred from 1952 to 1974, during which time 35 diamond core holes were completed for a total of 7789m.

The deepest hole was 1664m, while the shallowest was less than 12m.

No uranium exploration has been carried out within the project area since 1975.

NickelX said over that time there had been vast improvements in exploration concepts and technologies such as the resolution and depth penetration capabilities of geophysical tools, as well as their sensitivity and detection limits.

Change of strategy

The Elliot Lake project forms part of NickelX’s strategy to enter the global uranium and gold sectors.

Formed as a predominantly nickel explorer, the company changed its focus in December due to a significant retreat in the global nickel price.

The company said it continues to evaluate a number of value-accretive exploration opportunities relating to the new commodities.

The change of focus aligns with Canada’s new approach to mineral exploration.

In December 2022, the nation’s minister of natural resources released the Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy supporting a 30% critical mineral exploration tax credit introduced months earlier.

The credit was designed to support the costs of exploration for specific critical minerals including uranium.

Ontario’s Critical Minerals Plan offers a competitive corporate and mining tax rate as well as the Ontario Focused Flow-Through-Share tax credit.

NickelX said it was engaging with relevant authorities regarding application of the 30% critical minerals tax credit at Elliot Lake.