Infini locks onto district-scale uranium system in Newfoundland

Infini Resources has hit anomalous uranium values ranging between 25 and 347 parts per million (ppm) uranium oxide in five adjacent diamond drill holes at the company’s flagship Portland Creek uranium project in Newfoundland, Canada.

The first batch of assays from Infini’s phase two drilling has traced out a northeast-southwest mineralised trend over more than two kilometres of strike with anomalous zones reaching thicknesses up to an impressive 300m downhole.

The company says this is an encouraging outcome, given that previous geochemical anomalism and geophysics had already defined priority targets along the same corridor. That trend stretches more than 4.5 kilometres from south of Trident Lake to north of Falls Lake, pointing to a strong possibility of district-scale uranium potential.

The latest data came from 11 holes in the company’s 17-hole phase two program, totalling 5310m. The campaign builds on last year’s phase one efforts, which tested areas near the prominent granitic fault scarp that dominates much of the eastern flanks of the project.

‘Large areas of the Project remain untested, including the source of the exceptionally high uranium-in-soil anomalies at Falls Lake.’

Infini Resources chief executive officer Rohan Bone

The new information has also backed up earlier field readings from scintillometers and portable XRF instruments. It supports the company’s revised interpretation of structural, geochemical, and geophysical data from its phase one drilling.

The comprehensive data overhaul has sharpened Infini’s existing exploration model, leading to the definition of four target priority categories along the 4.5 km-long trend.

Notably, drilling has revealed uranium in association with fractures, joints, breccias and shear zones in granitic rocks. These occurrences are all classic signs of a structurally controlled, shear-hosted system in which hot, uranium-bearing fluids have been focused along faults and precipitated uranium as conditions changed.

Additionally, the rocks appear to show widespread hydrothermal alteration – the tell-tale chemical and structural changes caused by hot fluids moving through the system. Uranium mineralisation is strongest in hematite-rich zones along reactivated shear planes, further reinforcing the link between structure, fluid flow and metal deposition.

And it’s not just uranium that is showing up. Analyses have also picked up meaningful polymetallic signatures with elevated molybdenum up to 321ppm, zinc up to 676 ppm and copper up to 479 ppm.

The results included a 5.11m interval in one hole that averaged 303 ppm copper, 166ppm molybdenum and 202ppm zinc, an elemental cocktail that highlights the existence of a highly fertile hydrothermal system.

While grades are variable and no blockbuster intervals have come to light yet, the broad, low-level hits across the drilling, spanning about 2.5km of mineralised strike, all point to a significant uranium deposition event.

Infini Resources chief executive officer Rohan Bone said: “The first batch of assays from Phase 2 drilling provides strong validation of our exploration model at Portland Creek, confirming uranium mineralisation across multiple holes and targets within a structurally controlled hydrothermal system.”

The company says the growing sense of scale has materially lowered its greenfields risk and backs its model that multiple higher-grade zones could be lurking in favourable fractures or subsidiary splays off the main fault structures.

Intriguingly, the big soil anomalies at its Falls Lake prospect – including the historic rock chip sample from the 1970’s that assayed an eye-watering 74,997ppm, uranium oxide – remain unexplained in bedrock.

However, the drilling has definitively intersected uranium mineralisation around the margins of a major structural corridor with a steeply dipping northeastern trend, identified in magnetics and from oriented drill core.

With phase two drilling wrapped up, Infini is now integrating its drill results with surface geochemistry, geophysics and logging. The data will then be used to inform a proposed airborne geophysical survey, with results expected in the next few months.

Final assays from the phase two drilling program are expected before the end of the second quarter. The final results will be followed up by on-ground evaluations, more mapping and sampling to prioritise other untested corridors.

The work will also provide a guide for an expanded phase three round of drilling and further exploration in the second half of the year, aimed at identifying key fluid pathways and traps that control the high-grade uranium potential.

Infini’s Portland Creek project appears to be evolving nicely with each new round of data that comes back and is integrated into the story.

Exploration at Portland Creek is no Sunday stroll. The work is seasonal and much of the ground is buried under loose scree or hidden beneath lakes, making boots-on-the-ground exploration a logistical headache at times.

Even so, Infini has pushed through the challenges and come out the other side with a defined district-scale uranium system and a confirmed structural host model brimming with upside. With the geological picture sharpening fast, the company looks fired up and ready to charge hard into its next round of exploration.

The upcoming airborne geophysics can only enhance what is becoming a compelling story.

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