The 3,473 hectare property is strategically located on the east side of the Athabasca Basin approx. 25 km southwest of Cameco’s McArthur River Mine and 15 km northeast and along strike of Cameco’s Millennium uranium deposit.
For the 40% interest in the property, Skyharbour will issue 1 million common shares to Aben as payment and will end up owning an undivided 100% interest in the project. Aben will retain a 2.5% net smelter royalty (NSR) in the Mann Lake property with Skyharbour having the right to purchase 1.5% of the NSR for $1.5m.
The Mann Lake property is also adjacent to the Mann Lake Joint Venture operated by Cameco (52.5%) with partners Denison Mines (30%) and AREVA (17.5%).
Denison Mines acquired International Enexco and its 30% interest on the project after the 2014 winter drill program discovered high grade, basement-hosted uranium mineralization. The drill program intersected 2.31% eU3O8 over 5.1 metres including 10.92% eU3O8 over 0.4 metres.
The Mann Lake Uranium Project has seen over $3.5m of previous exploration expenditures including recent geophysics and two diamond drill programs totaling 5,400 metres carried out by Triex in 2006 and 2008. Skyharbour recently carried out a ground-based EM survey focused on a zone where a favourable, 2 km long aeromagnetic low coincides with possible basement conductor trends indicated by prior EM surveys.
The survey was successful in confirming the presence of a broad, NE-SW trending corridor of conductive basement rocks which are probably graphitic metapelites. These features trend onto the adjacent ground held by Cameco. In 2006, a diamond drill program intersected a 4.5 metre wide zone of anomalous boron (up to 1,758 ppm) in the sandstone immediately above the unconformity in hole MN06-005.
Boron enrichment is common at the McArthur River uranium mine, and along with illite and chlorite alteration, is a key pathfinder element for uranium deposits in the Basin. In the same drill hole, an altered basement gneissic rock with abundant clay, chlorite, hematite and calc-silicate minerals was intersected about 7.6 metres below the unconformity, and contained anomalous uranium up to 73.6 ppm over a 1.5 metre interval. Background uranium values are commonly between 1 and 5 ppm.
Skyharbour president and CEO Jordan Trimble said: "Skyharbour’s management believes this is an accretive deal for the Company’s shareholders as we further enhance our portfolio of Athabasca uranium projects with drill ready properties in the Basin’s most prolific areas.
"The Mann Lake Uranium Project boasts highly prospective geology and geochemistry, and robust discovery potential as identified by the historic work consisting of over $3.5 million in exploration expenditures, with additional work recommended on a number of untested drill targets. Of particular note is the property’s strategic location southwest of the McArthur River Mine and adjacent to Cameco’s Mann Lake Joint Venture with AREVA and Denison."
Skyharbour’s and Aben’s boards have common directors. The closing of the acquisition by Skyharbour is subject to standard conditions, including regulatory and TSX Venture Exchange approval.
