New uranium discoveries for Western Metals

Western Metals Ltd has discovered two new uranium prospects within its Tanza...

  Western Metals Ltd has discovered two new uranium prospects within its Tanzania exploration area.Drilling has also continued to extend previously intersected uranium mineralisation at the Mtonya Project, identifying high grade uranium over a strike length of 4km. Results from the regional helicopter supported field reconnaissance program carried out in November 2007 are considered very exciting by the company. This work has resulted in the discovery of two new important mineralized systems, Foxy and Eland, in the Ruvuma project area. The prospects are located approximately 60km south-east and 110km south-west of Mtonya respectively. Mineralisation at the Foxy prospect is related to a hematised sandstone bed exposed over an area of approximately 0.5sqkm. Counts up to 20,000 counts per second (cps) were found in association with the abundant yellow secondary uranium mineral, uranophane. A grab sample taken from the eastern edge of the anomaly returned an assay result of 13,400 parts per million (ppm) U3O8. At the Eland Prospect, mineralisation is associated with banded, leuco gneiss. The company’s geologists located an area of anomalism of approximately 0.6sqkm with hotspots up of up to 4,000cps. Grab samples collected from the area returned assay results of 141ppm U3O8, 440ppm U3O8 and 1,080ppm U3O8. According to Western Metals, the discovery of a new type of uranium mineralisation in basement rock in SW Tanzania is extremely encouraging. The company has said that the potential presence of this type of mineralisation opens up a number of possibilities and warrants the re-evaluation of a number of highly significant airborne radiometric anomalies that were previously downgraded and dismissed as anomalous basement. Results from the recently completed RC drilling program at the Mtonya Uranium Project continue to provide encouragement for this project. This third phase of RC drilling has delivered more significant intercepts and extended the area of subsurface uranium mineralisation. Significant intercepts from the October drill program include 4m at 737ppm U3O8 from 44m, 1m at 1140ppm U3O8 from 25m, 2m at 970ppm U3O8 from 20m and 3m at 216ppm U3O8 from 61m.An aggressive and ambitious work program supported by a substantial exploration budget has been planned for SW Tanzanian uranium exploration for 2008.