Infini cleared for first Athabasca uranium drilling blitz in Canada

Infini Resources has ticked off a key step in its Canadian uranium exploration push, with Saskatchewan regulators granting permits for the company’s maiden drilling at its Reynolds Lake and Reitenbach Lake projects, on the eastern outboard margin of the nation’s famed Athabasca Basin.

Infini’s contiguous projects stretch across a massive 766-square-kilometre landholding on the eastern margins of the Athabasca Basin.

The approvals clear the way for Infini to mobilise a rig to site in late April and launch a minimum 2500-metre diamond drilling campaign to test a suite of high-priority targets across the two contiguous projects.

Infini’s drill plan looks to be stacking the odds in its favour. The company has pulled together airborne electromagnetic data, magnetics, uranium geochemistry and structural interpretation to identify drill sites where multiple potential uranium indicators coincide.

‘The integration of geophysics, geochemistry and structural datasets has defined compelling, high-priority targets.’

Infini Resources chief executive officer Rohan Bone

So far, those indicators have pinpointed a plethora of conductive hotspots, magnetic lows, fault intersections and strong uranium geochemical anomalism.

The company’s program represents the first drilling of the underexplored eastern margins of the Athabasca Basin, which is considered highly prospective for both unconformity-related and basement-hosted uranium systems.

Infini Resources chief executive officer Rohan Bone said: “The award of drill permits at Reynolds and Reitenbach is a major milestone for Infini, enabling us to advance toward our maiden drill program on the eastern margins of the Athabasca Basin.”

The Athabasca Basin hosts some of the world’s biggest and highest-grade uranium mines. They include Cameco’s McArthur River and Cigar Lake uranium mines, which contain total mineral reserves of 165.6 million pounds at 15.9 per cent uranium oxide and 391.9 million pounds at 6.9 per cent uranium, respectively.

Intriguingly, Infini’s projects have remained underexplored since the 1970s and are only 50km from Cameco Corporation’s massive Rabbit Lake operations, which contain the Rabbit Lake, Collins Point, and Eagle Point uranium deposits.

Rabbit Lake is one of North America’s longest-operating mines and has produced over 203 million pounds of yellow cake since opening in 1975. Eagle Point was known for its high-grade underground uranium deposits, which continued production until the mill was placed on care and maintenance in 2016.

Infini is targeting what it describes as a large, system-scale footprint, including 80 kilometres of electromagnetic conductors and a highly prospective 15km by 3km northeast-southwest structural conductor corridor next to its new Titus prospect in the southern extremity of the tenement block.

The corridor grabbed market attention in late March when Infini finalised its first-pass drill targets, flagging surface rock-chip assays up to 1.90 per cent uranium oxide at Titus. Titus sits hard up against that corridor and a priority electromagnetic target.

The company’s earlier work in January highlighted the growing scale of the conductive network at Reitenbach. It reinforced its exploration model by linking lake-sediment uranium anomalies with regionally extensive electromagnetic conductors and key structural features.

Infini will work alongside geological services contractor Archer Cathro and Rodren Drilling, while continuing its engagement with local First Nations group Ya’thi Néné Lands and Resources throughout the program.

With the first drillholes set to probe the geological mysteries of the under-investigated outer margins of the renowned Athabasca Basin, Infini is finally about to find out what’s driving those big conductors at depth.

As always, early drilling phases are often the time of truth, where models are proven or otherwise.

However, with multiple coincident datasets lining up over an extensive target footprint, and other big uranium shows sitting within 100km, Infini looks well-placed to deliver new chapters in its Canadian story when it starts tripping core out from the holes.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au