Wyoming
In Wyoming, Fischer-Watt’s controls 825 Federal claims covering 16,500 acres and three State leases covering 879 acres. The properties are located in areas of excellent uranium-bearing geology with some being proximal to formerly producing uranium mines or in-situ recovery (“ISR”) operations. More than 200 million pounds of uranium oxide have been produced in Wyoming, the most from any of the United States. Wyoming has been consistently supportive of uranium mining for decades.
Uranium mineralization in Wyoming is found primarily in “roll fronts”, crescent-shaped deposits formed in saturated, permeable sandstones. Groundwater carrying dissolved uranium and other metals such as iron, molybdenum, vanadium, and selenium flows through these host rocks. The metals precipitate when the groundwater flow crosses the interface from oxidized conditions into reducing conditions in the sandstone, accumulating in the crescent-shaped forms. This deposit style is often amenable to low-cost and environmentally-friendly In-Situ Recovery (ISR) methods where uranium is dissolved out of the rock with oxygenated leachwater injected into the formation through a series of wells.
Cyclone Rim
Fischer-Watt is focused on the largest and most advanced of its properties, located in the Cyclone Rim area of the Great Divide Basin of south-central Wyoming. This was an area explored in the 1970s by major companies including Union Carbide and Newmont Mining. Fischer-Watt's 14,200-acre land position, which includes the UT and CR Trend claim groups, was assembled between 2005 and 2008 and covers a 8-mile length of favorable ground along the projected roll front. The east end of the property is approximately eight miles west of Rio Tinto Limited’s Sweetwater uranium processing mill which is presently on care and maintenance.
A first phase exploration program has been completed on the UT claims which included 49 relatively shallow drill holes (totaling 6,692 metres) on 400-foot centers, encountering significant uranium mineralization in 15 of the 49 holes. Management believes the mineralized intercepts represent portions of at least two shallow roll fronts which may be extractable by surface mining or ISR methods.
Highlights from the gamma log radiometric readings of these 15 holes include:
- UT-008 with 0.076% eU308* over 3.1 metres (10 ft)
- UT-020 with 0.050% eU308 over 3.4 metres (11 ft)
- UT-044 with 0.067% eU308 over 3.1 metres (10 ft)
(*eU308: radiometric equivalent of uranium content)
In an initial test of the 25-mile long CR trend, holes totaling about 8,000 meters were drilled along several fence-lines to provide cross-sectional information along the trend. Each fence was about 2.5 miles apart and vertical holes were drilled on each fence at 400-foot spacing. Of 34 holes drilled, five encountered significant uranium mineralization.
Highlights from the gamma log radiometric readings of these 34 holes included:
- CR-14 with 0.059 % eU3O8 over 8 metres (26 ft)
- CR-10 with 0.016 % eU3O8 over 5.5 metres (18 ft)
(*eU308: radiometric equivalent of uranium content)
These results demonstrate that uranium mineralization is present along a significant portion of the roll front trace and that, in some areas, a series of roll fronts are stacked on top of each other. With this data, Fischer-Watt’s independent consulting geologist, W.T. Cohan and Associates, Inc., carried out an evaluation of the potential mineralized material that may be hosted within the Cyclone Rim property has commenced a preliminary calculation of the quantity and grade of mineralized material within the Cyclone Rim property.
W T Cohan in their report noted that a significant portion of the extensive roll-front trend in this area of Wyoming extended over about 109 miles in a range of 6 to 26 miles east of Fischer-Watt’s property. To date there are three drilled out uranium deposits and one open pit mine in this portion of the roll-front. These deposits and historic mine production account for 29.8 million pounds of U3O8.
U3O8 MINERALIZATION & PRODUCTION ALONG THE ROLL FRONT EAST OF FISCHER-WATT’S CYCLONE RIM
| Property | Mineralization (MM Lbs U3O8) | Comments |
| Lost Creek (Ur-Energy Inc.) | 10.9 | |
| Lost Soldier (Ur-Energy Inc.) | 14.0 | |
| JAB (Energy Metals Corp.) | 3.6 | |
| Sweetwater Mine (Rio Tinto) | 1.3 | historic production |
| Total | 29.8 |
Note: Fischer-Watt does not own nor control any of these deposits.
W T Cohan reported that this section of the roll-front therefore hosted 272,500 pounds of U3O8 per mile of the trend. On this basis Fischer-Watt’s property has the potential to host mineralization in the order of 7.75 million pounds of U3O8. However, W T Cohan points out that a large portion of the roll-front trend remains unexplored and as such “this potential is very likely too conservative”. By determining the yield factor for the length of roll-fronts at the published project sites W T Cohan arrives at an average yield of uranium mineralization at known deposits of 2.32 million pounds of U3O8 per mile over the 12.4 miles of roll-front found in the above listed projects.
W T Cohan states “The successful results of 450 foot spaced grid drilling in the western portion of the Fischer-Watt claims in the UT area and the three drill fences in the CRS area substantiates the probability of the existence of 10 million pounds of potential uranium mineralization. Furthermore, drilling in the eastern portion of the property revealed the presence of unusually thick host sandstones and continuous mineralization, indicating the presence of a major fluvial channel, and there remains 17 miles of untested roll-front on Fischer-Watt’s property. Therefore, there is the potential for the discovery an additional 10 to 30 million pounds of U3O8 in this portion of the property as well”. Therefore, W T Cohan states it “ascribes a mineralization potential of 10 to 40 million pounds of U3O8 to Fischer-Watt’s properties in the Great Divide Basin of Wyoming.”
Alkali Creek and Whiskey Peak
The 1200-acre Alkali Creek and Whiskey Peak claim blocks are located about eight miles north of the UT claims and are adjacent to claims held by Energy Metals Corporation (now Uranium One Inc.). A reclaimed ISR operation that was formerly operated by Ogle Petroleum is also nearby. T-USA’s Alkali Creek property was previously drilled by Teton Energy and Newmont Mining.
South Pass
The 36 claims and 2 leases covering about 800 acres at South Pass are located along the southeast flank of the Wind River Mountains in the Green River Basin. Exploration was carried out in this area in the late 1960s by Federal American Partners, Getty Oil and Gulf Resources. In general they identified widespread low-grade mineralization over portions of a 26 mile long roll-front. Two mineralized areas, known as the East Sage and the Brett, were identified at that time. These may be evaluated by Fischer-Watt for the possible application of ISR.
Shirley Basin
The Shirley Basin uranium district is located in the northeastern part of Carbon County, between Casper and Medicine Bow. Uranium was historically produced from four mines beginning in 1959. Utah Construction and Homestake operated underground mines and Petronomics developed two open pits in the area. Deposits in the area are hosted in the Wind River Formations of Eocene age.
Fischer-Watt controls claims at the southern end of the Middle Shirley Basin Trend in an area of reported uranium mineralization. The MSB block of 21 claims cover an area of approximately 400 acres. No exploration has been carried out on this property to date.
