Canadian explorer IsoEnergy Limited has delivered a set of stellar uranium drill results from its Larocque East project that could make a seasoned geologist blush, headlined by a spectacular intercept of 15.4 per cent uranium oxide 500 metres east of its already world-class Hurricane deposit.
The latest assays from the company’s 2026 summer drilling program in Canada's eastern Athabasca Basin have confirmed high-grade uranium in multiple step-out holes along the Hurricane South Trend, which greatly extend the known mineralisation.
The headline hit came from a diamond drill hole, which returned a stunning 0.5-metre section grading 15.4 per cent uranium oxide within a broader two-metre interval assaying 4.17 per cent, or 5.44 per cent over 1.5m. The result is significant not just for its grade but for its geologically and strategically critical location, sitting directly along strike from the company's massive existing Hurricane resource, proving the system still has plenty of room to grow.
For context, the company's Hurricane deposit already flaunts one of the highest-grade uranium resources on the planet, with an indicated mineral resource of 48.6 million pounds of black oxide averaging an almost unbelievable 34.5 per cent. It also holds a smaller inferred resource of 2.7 million pounds at 2.2 per cent of the mineral concentrate.
IsoEnergy's Larocque East project comprises 39 mineral claims totalling 19,699 hectares in a tier-one jurisdiction, just 40 kilometres northwest of the McClean Lake uranium mill, with mineralisation stretching to a relatively shallow depth of 325 metres. It features very high-grade mineralisation over similar widths and thicknesses as some of the Athabasca Basin's major deposits – up to 12m thick and 125m wide - and has no standing surface water cover.
Other new assays have also delivered the goods. The second-best hole, put in 75m east of a previous high-grade winter hole, intersected 3.5m at 3.86 per cent uranium concentrate, including a sizzling 0.5-metre run assaying 13.8 per cent of the radioactive oxide.
Closer to home, another hole drilled into the southern resource footprint within the previously interpreted low-grade shell of the existing deposit returned a three-metre intercept going 3.53 per cent of the black oxide - or 2m at 5.02 per cent - with a high-grade central slug of 0.5m going 10.8 per cent. Management says the intercept improves on the 2022 resource estimate grades used to model the deposit's southernmost, lower-grade zone.
IsoEnergy's summer program saw 26 holes completed for 10,159m of drilling, with an impressive 18 of those holes intersecting radioactivity. The drilling was largely focused on the Hurricane South Trend, testing the southern L fault within and east of the existing deposit footprint, in addition to testing the adjacent J and K central southern faults.
IsoEnergy Limited vice president of geology Dan Brisbin said: “We are pleased that uranium assay results received to date for exploration holes completed on the Hurricane South Trend in the summer have substantiated previously released radiometric results. The LE26-248 and LE26-273 intercepts improve on uranium grades modelled for the southernmost portion of the Deposit in the 2022 resource estimate."
Brisbin added that beyond the existing deposit, grades up to 15.4 per cent uranium concentrate near the east end of the drill-defined extent of the L fault zone - 500 metres east of the Hurricane resource - highlight the potential of the sparsely tested projection of this structure to the east, which the company is now looking to drill next year.
The Athabasca Basin is to Canadian uranium what WA's Pilbara region is to Aussie iron ore – it’s the absolute epicentre of Canadian uranium prospectivity, with discoveries in the basin renowned for their spectacular grades.
IsoEnergy appears to be holding a brewing storm by the tail with its Hurricane resource, as many would consider its existing resource a company-maker in its own right.
For now, with the diamond core pointing to a system that remains wide open and capable of delivering bonanza grades at least 500m away from the main body of high-grade mineralisation, the key question is how much bigger this storm could get. With plans for more drilling in 2027, the market may not have to wait long to find out.
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