The uses for Uranium are many and lucrative, ranging from its use in photography to being a component of nuclear weapons. While it is not as scarce as gold or silver, Uranium companies boasting new finds suddenly discover themselves to be the centre of attention.
So it was in the last full week of May when Vancouver-based Pitchstone Exploration Ltd. (TSX-Venture:PXP) reported the latest on the sample of outcropping leucogranite-hosted mineralization found over the winter on its Dome property in Namibia. Samples produced up to 5,140 parts per million (ppm) Uranium (0.61% U3O8) in leucogranite. Nine of the samples contained more than 200 ppm U.
Dome comprises 182,000 hectares and is part of a uranium exploration joint venture between Pitchstone (64%) and private company Manica Minerals Ltd. (36%) through Manica's wholly-owned subsidiary Cheetah Minerals Exploration Ltd.
The March exploration program consisted of geological mapping and sampling designed to follow up on the results of December 2009 exploration at Dome North that identified a new occurrence of radioactive leucogranite (commonly referred to as alaskite) in outcrop. Two surface grab samples collected in December contained 149 and 152 ppm U3O8.
A total of 54 samples of leucogranite were collected in the March program. Thirty four of these were 15 centimetres long core samples obtained with a portable hand drill. The others are grab samples. Nine samples, five of which were core samples, contain greater than 200 ppm U (0.024% U3O8).
The highest uranium value was 5,140 ppm U (0.61% U3O8) from a grab sample containing visible yellow uranium oxide mineralization; the highest core sample contained 352 ppm U (0.042% U3O8).
PXP explores for uranium in Canada and parts of Africa, and was created to acquire highly prospective properties during a depressed price cycle and add value through exploration as the market improved.
The company began acquiring land in early 2003 in the heart of Saskatchewan’s eastern Athabasca Basin uranium district in proximity to the major, high-grade uranium producers. Currently the company owns from 41% to 100% interest in 12 properties (70,000 hectares) situated in the eastern Athabasca Basin.
Pitchstone also has a 50% interest in several properties in the Hornby Bay Basin, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. The Hornby Bay properties include the Mountain Lake deposit, which contains an Inferred Mineral Resource (NI 43-101 compliant) of 8.2 million pounds U3O8 contained in 1.6 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.23% U3O8, above a cutoff grade of 0.10% U3O8.
PXP dug itself out of a 52-week gulch recently, in terms of its stock price, after it fell to 26 cents a share in late April. Its peak, appropriately enough, was 52 cents last October. While the Dome news didn’t turn the collective cranks of investors -- at least not right away (volume registered only 10,000 shares that day) -- its status as a bargain stock could fatten the volume in good time. Certainly management is hoping those with a yen for adding Uranium to their portfolios will raise both numbers.
