Bayswater has interests in over 662,000 acres of land in the North Thelon Basin region of Nunavut. The Thelon Basin has similar geological characteristics to the Athabasca Basin and is largely underexplored. Airborne surveys flown over the entire property identified 18 radiometric anomalies in 2006. In 2007 these targets were followed up with detailed ground surveys and this confirmed the presence of significant uranium mineralization in float and bedrock occurrences in the Amer West Block. In 2008, follow-up exploration continued and another discovery of uranium mineralization in float was made at the Itza claim block that significantly extended the strike length and enhanced the potential of the mineralized belt within the property.

Location & History

Bayswater holds 50% to 100% interest in approximately 662,000 acres of land in the North Thelon region of Nunavut. Through the Canada Uranium Joint Venture (CUJV) with Strongbow Exploration, the Company holds 50% interest in 38,350 acres, and 100% interest in the remaining 624,300 acres. The property consists of five blocks - Permit 1, Itza Lake/Permit 2/Amer West, and Amer East. Bayswater's properties are situated around the margin of the basin in favourable geologic settings for unconformity type deposits, in particular, the Itza Lake/Amer West, and Amer East claim blocks where one sample assayed 8.48% U3O8.

The North Thelon region hosts Areva's Kiggavik, Andrew Lake and END deposits (known as the Kiggavik Trend) with an aggregate reported resource of approximately 131 million pounds of contained U3O8. These projects are located 105 km to the southeast of Bayswater's North Thelon project area.  The Amer Lake deposit, held by Uranium North, is situated less than 10 km northeast of Bayswater’s West Amer block. This deposit was discovered by a joint venture consisting of Aquitane and Cominco in the early 1970’s, and hosts a shallow historical resource of 6.7 million pounds U3O8.

Access to the property is by float plane and most exploration work is helicopter assisted from exploration camps.

Geology & Mineralization

The basement rocks to the sandstones of the northern part of the Thelon Basin include the "Amer Group". This group of rocks includes metamorphosed sediments with some graphite and iron rich units, a combination which is favourable for the formation of both sediment hosted and unconformity-type uranium deposits. The Amer Group has long been recognized as being exceptionally enriched in uranium. Occurrences of uranium mineralization (up to 2.7% U3O8) have been recorded throughout the exposed portion of the Amer Group to the northeast of the Thelon sandstones. The style of mineralization in the Amer Belt consists of disseminated pitchblende in weakly metamorphosed feldspathic sandstone and siltstone that is sporadically present over a strike length of over 40 km within Bayswater’s landholdings.  This style of mineralization hosts large, high-grade deposits in similar lithologies with similar ages in Gabon in West Africa where four deposits (including the Oklo and Mounana deposits) each hosted between 7 million and 45 million pounds U3O8. These deposits have been mined out by a predecessor of Areva.

In addition to this favourable basement stratigraphy, the North Thelon project straddles a portion of the Amer Fault Zone, a major northeast trending regional tectonic zone with the potential to provide a structural trap for uranium mineralization. It is interpreted that uranium from the Amer Group rocks may have been reconcentrated and enriched in favourable structures. This is supported by the presence of angular boulders containing grades of up to 8.48% U3O8.

Exploration

In 2006, Bayswater carried out a 21,325 line km radiometric and magnetic survey of all of its property interests in North Thelon. The survey identified several priority radiometric anomalies for which follow-up prospecting was undertaken later in the year.

In 2007, further prospecting, mapping and sampling, and ground radiometric and magnetic surveys was carried out on these targets and results have confirmed significant uranium mineralization of the sediment host type in the Amer West Block where Bayswater holds a 100% interest. These results included grab samples which yielded assays between 0.12% and 0.32% U3O8.

Permit 2 block of the CUJV, returned significant results including the discovery of a small (<0.5 m), subangular, granodiorite boulder which assayed 0.389% U3O8.

In 2008, Bayswater carried out detailed geophysical, geological and prospecting surveys to follow-up radiometric targets identified in 2006 and anomalies identified from the 2007 survey. In July 2008, the Company announced that during the follow-up exploration program it had discovered uranium mineralization at the Itza claim block similar to the discovery made in 2007 at the Amer West claim block.

Future exploration will feature a diamond drilling program on the Amer West property to evaluate interpreted thickened sections of the mineralized sandstone unit.

 

Recent News Releases from North Thelon

November 11, 2008	Bayswater Provides Project and Operations Update
September 10, 2008	Bayswater Defines Uranium Mineralization Grading Up To 7.55% U3O8 at North Thelon Basin Project
July 28, 2008	Bayswater Discovers Uranium at North Thelon Basin Project

 

View the North Thelon Photo Gallery.

Last updated May 28, 2009

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