projects

project description

The Key Lake South Uranium Project (KLS) is located approximately 15 kilometres south of the Key Lake mill which processes ore from Cameco Corp.’s (TSX: CCO; NYSE: CCJ) McArthur River uranium mine. Provincial Highway 914, a north-south all-weather highway in Saskatchewan, crosses the project, providing ideal access. The project consists of 12 contiguous claims (23,977 hectares or approximately 240 sq. km) which were staked during 2011 to 2012 and have been held and explored by a private company (“SaskCo”) until the end of 2022. The project was then transferred to Abasca Resources Inc. by reverse takeover of a TSX Venture listed corporation and is 100%-owned.

KLS is underlain by the prospective uranium hosting rocks of the Wollaston-Mudjatik contacting zone (WMCZ) in the southeastern Athabasca Basin. The world’s largest high-grade uranium deposits are associated with the unconformity between the Athabasca Basin and the Wollaston-Mudjatik basement. Most of the uranium occurrences and deposits associated with the Athabasca Basin are located near the boundary between the Mudjatik and Wollaston domains as either unconformity-related or basement-hosted type. KLS is located in the southern strike extent of these deposits and in the same regional magnetic low structure that hosts them. Alteration at the KLS shows characteristics of both unconformity-type and basement-hosted deposits.

In addition to the uranium prospectivity, KLS also hosts the Loki Flake Graphite Zone (“Loki Zone”) in the northern part of the project area. The Loki Zone was discovered by Abasca in 2016 while exploring for uranium at KLS and representative drill core samples were taken of the zone for the purpose of uranium exploration. The 2016 drilling intersected the zone over a 2 km trend with intersections up to 40 m in length. In the fall of 2023, the samples were re-analysed for graphite and assays returned values up to 22.2 Cg %. A subset of the samples was also selected to determine the graphite flake size distribution by QEMSCAN, which yielded a median passing percent up to 214 μm.

Highlights

recent exploration

In 2024, 27 holes were drilled at KLS, totaling 9,092 m. Drilling was divided between regional exploration along the Seager Lake trend (“Seager Trend”) on the western side of the property and the Loki Flake Graphite Zone. A total of 5 holes were drilled along the Seager Trend, totaling 2,681 m. Drilling intersected pervasive silicification zones and local graphitic fault zones.

In 2024, 20 holes totaling 5,499 m, were drilled into a 600 m section of the Loki Flake Graphite Zone at 100 m drill spacing. All holes intersected significant graphitic intervals similar to those drilled in 2016. An additional 2 holes, totaling 912 m, were drilled on a parallel conductor north of the Loki Zone. These holes also intersected a new graphite zone up to 50 m wide.

Samples from the 2024 drill program are currently being processed and some of their results are pending.

loki flake graphite zone

The Loki Zone was discovered by Abasca in 2016 while exploring for uranium at KLS and representative drill core samples were taken of the zone for the purpose of uranium exploration. The 2016 drilling intersected the zone over a 2 km trend with intersections up to 40 m in length. In the fall of 2023, the samples were re-analysed for graphite and assays returned values up to 22.2 Cg %. A subset of the samples was also selected to determine the graphite flake size distribution by QEMSCAN, which yielded a median passing percent up to 214 μm.

In 2024, 20 holes totaling 5,499 m, were drilled into a 600 m section of the Loki Flake Graphite Zone at 100 m drill spacing. All holes intersected significant graphitic intervals similar to those drilled in 2016. An additional 2 holes, totaling 912 m, were drilled on a parallel conductor north of the Loki Zone. These holes also intersected a new graphite zone up to 50 m wide.

project history

Considerable exploration activity by multiple operators has occurred on the KLS Uranium Project. Early regional exploration activities between the late 60s and throughout the 70s focused on ground prospecting, lake water geochemistry, and airborne radiometric and electromagnetic (EM) surveys as well as some shallow drilling. Although these early activities led to the discovery of the nearby Gaertner and Deilmann deposits that comprise Key Lake, no significant uranium mineralization was discovered over the current KLS Uranium Project area during that time. During the early 80s, anomalous radioactivity in pegmatites was discovered during ground prospecting surveys over the KLS Uranium Project area and shallow follow-up drilling was done during the mid-2000s with limited technical success.

SaskCo acquired ownership of the property through staking in 2011 and 2012. Various compilation reports and interpretations of historical data were undertaken by SaskCo, both in-house and by independent consultants, in 2011, 2012, and 2013, resulting in identifying target areas and recommendations for future exploration work. Field programs, including airborne and ground geophysical surveys, geological mapping, soil and lake sediment geochemical surveys, and radon-soil-surveys were conducted by SaskCo in 2014 and 2015.

In 2016, SaskCo carried out a diamond drilling program to test geological features interpreted by the previous exploration data, including the 2014 HeliFALCON Airborne Gravity Gradiometer survey, EM surveys, geochemistry surveys, and geological mapping. A total of 4,553 metres were drilled comprising 26 NQ holes in two target areas: 15 holes totalling 2,744 metres in the Campbell Creek area and 11 holes totalling 1,809 metres in the Mustang Ridge area where SaskCo discovered intersections of up to 0.25 U₃O₈% over 0.2. In 2022, Condor Consulting Inc. was engaged in further interpreting and modelling available geophysical survey data to assist with SaskCo’s in-house technical team for structural analysis, target prioritizing, and detailed drillhole planning.

In 2023, Abasca completed an additional 25 holes totaling 10,135 m over winter and summer drill programs at KLS. Geochemical assays confirmed anomalous uranium intersections at the Mustang target area where 9 of the 11 drillholes intersected anomalous uranium over a cumulative total core length of 13.85 m. KLS-23-004 intersected a total of 1.5 m of anomalous uranium, including 10 cm at 1260 ppm U and KLS-23-006 intersected a total of 3.4 m of anomalous uranium, including 79 cm at 897 ppm U and 43 cm at 942 ppm U. KLS-23-009 intersected a total of 2.4 m of anomalous uranium, including 50 cm at 1010 ppm U.

Multiple holes in the 2023 drilling included intersections of stacked graphic fault zones with overprinting fracture zones, fault gouge, and local fault breccia – ideal features in other basement-hosted uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin region. Silicification, hematite and clay alteration observed in drillholes within and proximal to fracture and fault zones. The identification of the alteration within reactivated fault zone systems and coincident anomalous pathfinder element geochemistry, including Boron, Cerium and Copper, is essential to the search for uranium deposits.