Annual Report Edition, May 2013
7
•
Uranium
•
La Ronge, Saskatchewan
-
The demand for uranium has turned around following the
downturn caused by the Fukushima tsunami-related disaster in Japan. In early April of this
year, Power Engineering International magazine reported that uranium demand will increase
by about 40% over the next seven years. According to Worldnuclear.org, 548 new reactors are
either under construction, planned or proposed, many in China and Russia. Civil stockpiles
of uranium are largely depleted, and the existing supply is not adequate to meet demand.
Canada, the world’s second largest supplier of uranium after Kazakhstan, continues to be
considered as a safe and reliable source.
All of Canada’s current uranium production comes from the Athabasca Basin, an area of northern
Saskatchewan that is well known for the richest deposits in the world. These deposits have been producing
since 1975, are buried beneath hundreds of metres of sandstone and are typically only 50-100 metres in
diameter and a few tens of metres thick. Although they are tiny by most mining standards, and therefore
challenging to find, they are exceptionally rich. With an average grade of over 3% uranium oxide, the typical
gross value of an Athabasca Basin deposit is in excess of $3.5 billion.
Nuinsco, recognizing the opportunities for discovery in the Athabasca region, has been exploring its large
claim group located near Cree Lake, Saskatchewan, just five kilometres north of the southern margin of the
sandstone basin. This property is over 38 kilometres long and comprises 21,949 hectares. It has been long
known that although these deposits are small, they have a “fingerprint” or halo of indicator elements and
geophysical characteristics that, if found together, greatly increase the potential for discovery. These include
a major fault zone in the “basement” of older rocks that occur under the sandstone, a highly electrically-
conductive unit of shale in the same basement and haloes of uranium, boron, nickel and arsenic that form
a plume that extends above the deposits for several hundred metres. Since 2006, Nuinsco’s exploration
team has identified and drilled four separate anomalous zones, each of which has all of the key indicators
of mineralization. The strongest of these, in the central part of its claim group, has coincident anomalies
containing up to over 700ppm uranium (background is typically below 4ppm), 1,400ppm boron (background
is about 25ppm) and 3,500ppm arsenic (background is about 1.5ppm). This area was to be a target for
the 2012 program, which was designed to drill from the ice on Cree Lake. Unfortunately, global warming
intervened, the ice began to melt and the program had to be abandoned before reaching this target.
The coincident geophysical and geochemical targets indicate that Nuinsco is in “Elephant Country”, that
the uranium mineralization process has operated here, and that we have an excellent chance for discovery.
The Diabase Peninsula property’s proximity to the edge of the basin means that overburden is thinner and
the targets are relatively easily reached by drilling, compared with many recent discoveries in the Athabasca
Basin. Nuinsco has done enough work on these claims to hold them for decades; given the need to also fund
other projects, only a modest surface geochemical program has been undertaken in the past few months.
The Company expects to resume a major drilling program as soon as market conditions permit.
Dr. J.M. Franklin, B.Sc., M.Sc, Ph.D. has over 40 years of experience as a geologist. He is a graduate of Carleton University
(
B.Sc., M.Sc) and the University of Western Ontario (Ph.D.). Since January 1998, he has been an Adjunct Professor at Queen’s
University; since 2001 at Laurentian University; and since 2005 at the University of Ottawa. He is a past President of both the
Geological Association of Canada and of the Society of Economic Geologists. He retired as Chief Geoscientist, Earth Sciences Sector,
the Geological Survey of Canada in 1998. Since that time, he has been a consulting geologist. Dr. Franklin is a Director of Nuinsco
and is also a Director of Ur-Energy Inc. and Aura Silver.
Diabase Peninsula
All the Indicators Are There!
•
Copper/Gold
•
Istanbul, Turkey
-
Certain mining jurisdictions
around the world have lost their lustre in recent years
as social and economic issues have hampered their
appeal to foreign investment and consequently their
growth. Turkey’s star, however, continues to shine
and in fact is glowing even brighter as international
companies discover the potential for mineral
discovery and mining profit in this country that
straddles Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Nuinsco has long been a fan of Turkey as an
exploration jurisdiction, entering the country in 2004
and maintaining a presence there since that time
through its Berta project, a joint venture with Xstrata.
Past drilling and other exploration has highlighted
Berta’s potential.
Located about 50 kilometres south of the Black
Sea, the Berta porphyry is reputed to be the largest
copper anomaly in the Turkish Pontides, covering 15
cubic kilometres. Extraordinarily-anomalous copper
has been obtained in drilling, most notably from hole
SD-07-08 that intersected 710 metres of 0.28% Cu,
with grades peaking at 30% Cu and 7.19% Zn.
In 2012 Xstrata, the operator of the joint venture,
undertook a 4,720 metre diamond drilling program to
expand drill coverage to areas not previously drilled.
Highlights of the most recent program include:
•
Hole SD-12-12, drilled to a depth of 733.2
metres, that included 280.8 metres (from 312
metres down-hole) grading 0.09% copper.
•
Hole SD-12-13, drilled to a depth of 926
metres, which intersected 354.6 metres
(
starting from 571.4 metres down-hole) which
averaged 0.14% copper.
•
Hole SD-12-16 returned 397.55 metres grading
0.097%
Cu (from 475.45 metres), including 36.4
metres grading 0.40% Cu (from 532.1 metres).
“
All of the holes drilled to date at Berta have returned
copper mineralization,” said Nuinsco’s President
Paul Jones. “The drilling indicates the huge scale
and continuity of the anomaly in the Berta porphyry
system. The wide spacing of the drill holes and the
long anomalous and altered intercepts obtained
continue to demonstrate the scope of the copper
mineralization at Berta. The property remains a very
large and very prospective exploration opportunity.”
Berta Project
2012
Drill Program at Berta
Continues to Highlight Potential
of one of Region’s Largest
Copper Anomalies
By Dr. J.M. Franklin, B.Sc., M.Sc, Ph.D.
Diabase Peninsula
Location
Saskatchewan, Canada
Ownership
100%
Commodity
Uranium
Project Status
Exploration
Location
Northeastern Turkey
Ownership
NWI/Xstrata
Commodity
Porphyry Copper/Gold/Moly
Project Status
Exploration
NWI
Did You Know
Did you know
that electricity for one in
five homes in the USA currently comes from
nuclear power?
Did you know
uranium is 40 times more
naturally abundant on Earth than silver?
Did you know
that one ton of natural
uranium can produce more than 40 million
kilowatt-hours of electricity? This is
equivalent to burning 16,000 tons of coal
or 80,000 barrels of oil?
NWI
Sources:
Reactor data:WNA to 1/4/13 (excluding 8 shut-down German units)
IAEA- for nuclear electricity production & percentage of electricity (% e) 13/4/12.
WNA: Global Nuclear Fuel Market report Sept 2011 (reference scenario) - for U.
Operable = Connected to the grid;
Under Construction = first concrete for reactor poured, or major refurbishment under way;
Planned=Approvals, fundingormajorcommitment inplace,mostlyexpected inoperationwithin8-10years;
Proposed = Specific program or site proposals, expected operation mostly within 15 years.
New plants coming on line are largely balanced by old plants being retired. Over 1996-2009, 43 reactors were
retired as 49 started operation.There are no firm projections for retirements over the period covered by this
Table, but WNA estimates that at least 60 of those now operating will close by 2030, most being small plants.
The 2011 WNA Market Report reference case has 156 reactors closing by 2030, and 298 new ones coming on line.
TWh = Terawatt-hours (billion kilowatt-hours), MWe = Megawatt (electrical as distinct from thermal), kWh =
kilowatt-hour.
66,512
tU = 78,438 t U
3
O
8
**
The world total includes 6 reactors operating on Taiwan with a combined capacity of 4927 MWe, which
generated a total of 40.4 billion kWh in 2011 (accounting for 19.0% of Taiwan’s total electricity generation).
Taiwan has two reactors under construction with a combined capacity of 2700 MWe, and one proposed, 1350
MWe. It is expected to require 1291 tU in 2013.
World Nuclear Power Reactors & Uranium Requirements**
Nuclear Electricity
Generation 2011
billion kWh
2518
c13.5 435 374,287
164 181,190 317 359,655
66,512
67
66,459
MWe net
%
e
No.
MWe gross
No.
MWe gross
No.
MWe gross
tonnes U
No.
Reactors Operable
April 2013
Reactors Under
Construction April 2013
Reactors Planned
April 2013
Reactors Proposed
April 2013
Uranium
Required 2013
Did You Know
Did you know
the Berta porphyry is reputed
to be the largest copper anomaly in the
Turkish Pontides, covering 15 km
3
.
Did you know
that copper has been in use
for at least 10,000 years, but more than
95%
of all copper ever mined and smelted
has been extracted since 1900?