Record mineralisation found at WA’s first uranium mine

SOME of the highest ever recorded grades of uranium mineralisation have been discovered at Toro Energy’s wholly owned Wiluna project, as it tries to bring nuclear energy into production in
WA.
Following geochemistry assays from its recently completed 2013 drill program, the company released results averaging grades of up to 2449 parts per million of triuranium octoxide across a 2.5m thickness at shallow depth at Wiluna. The grades peaked at 11,420ppm, or 1.14 per cent uranium oxide.
According to a company report, the impressive figures substantiated previous data from the uranium-rich area, and the economic potential of utilising the resources across its three primary prospects: Lake Way, Millipede and Dawson-Hinkler.
Toro pushed most of the test drills to 20m to determine the uranium potential at depth.
The company announced the discovery of a second zone of mineralisation across all three deposits, at depths well below the current mineralisation targets.
While the second zone averaged 0.5m to 1m in thickness and was mainly of a lower grade than the overlying resource, some areas – particularly Dawson-Hinkler – were determined to hold grades equal to or greater than the above mineralisation.
These latest assay results were announced just weeks after Toro bought neighbour uranium project Lake Maitland from Canada’s Mega Uranium for 414 million Toro shares.
The terms of the purchase would see Mega emerge as a 28 per cent shareholder in Toro.
Toro managing director Vanessa Guthrie said the company had experienced outstanding success in recent weeks.
“The results of this drilling program give us improved confidence in the Wiluna resource base. Toro is also very encouraged by the discovery of further uranium mineralisation at depth below
the current resources, as these findings support our geological model and understanding of the provenance of these deposits,” Ms Guthrie said.
“The identification of high-grade intersections in the previously inaccessible areas at Millipede and Lake Way deposits, combined with the recent acquisition of Lake Maitland from Mega Uranium, strengthens the project base and positions Wiluna to become WA’s next uranium mine.”
Toro Energy’s Wiluna project received environmental approval in April and aims to move into production in 2016.