Thunderbird primes drill bit for Canadian uranium mission

Thunderbird Resources has confirmed it has settled on a drilling contractor as it prepares to launch into a new campaign next month at its Hidden Bay uranium project in northern Saskatchewan in Canada.

The program at the operation that sits about 20km to the south-east of the prolific Rabbit Lake Mine, is expected to comprise five diamond drillholes for a total of about 2400m. It will be conducted by local firm, QB Drilling.

The project area is also close to the Eagle Point mine, lying along the eastern margin of the world-class Athabasca Basin that produces 20 per cent of the world’s uranium at a grade of about 2 per cent. Active exploration on the project area has returned after a 35-year hiatus.

Drilling during the 1970s and 1980s was restricted to testing electromagnetic (EM) conductors along the western edge of the property. Only minimal exploration was undertaken until 2022, when Thunderbird commissioned airborne gravity and magnetic surveys, identifying a favourable east-north-easterly-trending corridor of EM anomalies, structures and fold axes.

The company’s exploration has been designed to target basement mineralisation close to the interpreted contact between sandstone uncomformably overlying metamorphic rock, to the east. It is set to test six coincident gravity lows along a corridor.

Management considers Hidden Valley to have a similar geological setting to the Rabbit Lake and Eagle Point mines.

Thunderbird Resources executive chairman George Bauk said: “The time is ripe for uranium and there is no better place for uranium exploration than the Athabasca Basin. Uranium is essential for the future of clean energy, offering a reliable baseload power source. Our exploration success will be crucial in addressing the upcoming supply challenges to meet growing demand.”

Bauk said the nuclear supply chain has various agencies forecasting a higher uranium price in the short term, from a current price of US$91 (AU$136.50) a pound.

Earlier this year, Thunderbird carried out mapping, scintillometer surveys and radon-in-soil sampling through the most favourable areas of its ground.

Radon anomalies were found to occur directly above the gravity lows and modern technology was also introduced into the mix and results from spatiotemporal geochemical hydrocarbons (SGH) sampling are pending. The technique previously identified concealed targets at depths of several hundreds of meters.

Access can be an issue in the remote region, but a major highway transects the eastern portion of Thunderbird’s claim and a logistics hub lies 30km to the north.

The company has fully-funded the upcoming exploration programs following a recent $4.1 million capital raise and the sale of $1.07 million in shares. It holds 840 square kilometresof claims in the Athabasca Basin, which hosts the highest-grade uranium mines in the world and it also has exposure to copper through15 million Firetail Resources shares and that company’s Surprise Creek project.

The future for uranium prices appears bright, with 22 governments around the world agreeing to a “Net Zero Carbon Emissions” initiative to triple global nuclear energy capacity by 2050. Investment in the commodity has rebounded since a deep slump after the infamous Fukushima nuclear accident.

Secondary supplies are now down 38 per cent on 2021 levels, while greenfield opportunities are limited and geopolitics are uncertain. Meanwhile, technologies have improved dramatically and small modular reactors and hybrid energy systems are on the horizon.

The are all factors likely to work in Thunderbird’s favour if it is successful with the drill bit.

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