New Guides Led to New Models - Continuing Return of Exploration Experience, Nunavut, Canada

摘要

A number of predecessor companies of AREVA Resources Canada Inc (ARC) were involved in the discovery of uranium deposits, named the Kiggavik project in Nunavut, Canada. Exploration and delineation drilling between 1976 and 1997 outlined approximately 140 Mlbs (54 000 t U) of uranium at 0.32 per cent U. A total of five uranium deposits have been identified (potentially four open pits and one underground) for prefeasibility and regulatory permitting. The project was placed on care and maintenance in 1998 due to poor market conditions but revitalised in 2007 with the improvement of the spot price for uranium. The role of the exploration department from 2007-2012 was to help provide logistical support to strengthen the confidence level of the known deposits and other showings with in-fill drilling. A strategic shift in exploration planning occurred in 2013 with the mandate to find new shallow source (open pit scenario) deposits to aid in the economic feasibility of the project. It has been 23 years since the last anomalous mineralisation has been intersected by exploration (outside of known showings and deposits) and 27 years since the last deposit discovery on the project. The exploration team started in late 2012 to compile three decades of exploration consisting of multiple airborne geophysical surveys, and several hundred ground geophysical surveys. A priority of understanding the geology of the project was also emphasised with the preparation of a new geological map with regional cross-sections, with the aim of improving qualitative and quantitative geophysical modelling to refine targeting. The known deposits have distinct geophysical characteristics located in preferred structural corridors. Statistical analyses of geophysical responses were completed on all the deposits and showings. Geographic information system (GlS)-based targeting software was utilised to determine prospectivity analyses in the multitude of geoscience layers collected. The GIS generated targets span all the lithological units seen in the Kiggavik project, but all the known deposits are within the Neoarchean Woodburn Lake Group of the Western Churchill Province. There has been two seasons of diamond drilling exploration with a continual input of geophysical and geological results that aid newer models for future drill hole targeting. The first two seasons has provided significant results not only in the Woodburn Lake Group but within geological units that have been previously underexplored because of predetermined geological models.