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MINING |Blue Sky Uranium
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BLUE SKY URANIUM Leading uranium discovery in Argentina
MINING |Blue Sky Uranium
Blue Sky Uranium was incorporated in 2006 with the primary objective to take advantage of opportunities for large-scale uranium discoveries in Argentina. Executives at the TSX-V listed exploration company were well aware of a number of highly prospective regions in the South of the country, which have been known to host uranium deposits of a style not too dissimilar from those commonly found in Australia and Western Africa. Over the last 12 years, Blue Sky has acquired around 450,000 hectares of property in Southern Argentina and partnered with Areva, the world’s largest integrated uranium company, until 2011 when the Fukushima disaster in Japan sent the industry into deep freeze.
“Since then, we’ve made some tremendous strides forward due to the new people we’ve been able to employ, namely our new geologist Guillermo Pensado, who is a uranium geologist with a very large pedigree, over 20 years’ experience in Argentina.”
Part of the Grosso Group Cacos has been part of the overarching Grosso Group since its founding 25 years ago, working closely with legendary South American mining executive Joe Grosso in the running of Blue Sky. “We [the Grosso Group] have had an uninterrupted 25-year history of mineral exploration in Argentina in all kinds of metals including lithium, silver and gold and for us Argentina has been ripe with opportunity because it is so unexplored. We’ve demonstrated that so far by making three world class discoveries.” The resource management group advanced the Gualcamayo mine in San Juan province, which is estimated to contain 3.3 million ounces (Moz) of gold and is now in
“It has only been in the last 18 months that
production by Yamana Gold and also has
we’ve really reactivated the company,” says
silver deposits in Southern Argentina, most
Blue Sky’s president and CEO Nikolaos Cacos,
recently discovering the Chinchillas deposit.
discussing the company’s new lease of life after its projects were temporarily placed on care and maintenance in the aftermath of Fukushima.
Resource Global Network The deposit will now be brought into
after the new plants come online in 2019.
production through a lucrative partnership
Much like other sources within its energy mix,
between Grosso Group’s Golden Arrow
Argentina imports uranium primarily from
Resources (previously featured in RGN Vol 4
Kazakhstan and Canada, which has proven to
Iss 7) and SSR Mining. “However, we believe
be a drain on funds.
that the group’s fourth discovery in Argentina is under Blue Sky,” says the CEO.
“Argentina is shifting its focus from importing hydrocarbons and using up all its valuable
Nuclear power is beginning to pick up again
US dollars in foreign exchange and is moving
after reverberations from the Fukushima
towards uranium as a source of reliable,
incident have been fully absorbed by global
efficient and cheap energy.
markets. Multiple reactors are being built across the world, with 56 currently under
“The government is very keen to have a
construction according to Cacos, many
domestic source of uranium and Blue Sky
of which are in countries you wouldn’t
has the project right now to gear up to be
necessarily expect, such as Japan and Saudi
Argentina’s first domestic supplier of uranium
Arabia.
and then become an exporter after that.”
Argentina is home to an advanced nuclear
While it is too early for the company to
energy industry itself. South America’s
confirm Argentina as its first customer, Blue
second largest economy has three nuclear
Sky is working very closely with the federal
power plants in operation, another one
government, in particular within the Rio
under construction, two more that are
Negro province in which it is active, which has
commissioned and two more in the planning
a budding nuclear research industry.
stage. “We are getting a lot of support and are At the moment Argentina needs around
building a really positive rapport between
500,000 pounds of uranium a year to feed
us. We are very confident that Argentina is
the plants that are currently in operation, but
looking at us as a first source of uranium,”
this is set to rise to one million pounds a year
Cacos purrs.
MINING |Blue Sky Uranium
Carbon-free energy Having seen global uranium prices bounce back in recent years, Cacos is one of many staunch advocates of nuclear energy as a clean, reliable and long-term source of energy. “I believe uranium is our best way of achieving a carbon-free source of energy,” he says. “Reactors can have a long life. The new reactors being built are extremely safe and in terms of energy efficiency I remember reading in a recent article that half a barrel of uranium has enough energy to supply one person’s entire lifetime need of energy. “I think even in Japan when the Fukushima reactor was damaged by the tsunami, it was a very old reactor. There were other new reactors there that weren’t damaged at all. I think part of it is also fear.
Resource Global Network “However, if used properly and safely it is a
in what you are looking for and work closely
natural form of energy that with the proper
with them and that way we can focus our
safeguards is the best form of energy we can strategy.” use.” These local geologists pointed Blue Sky to a Blue Sky has established exploration activity
region surrounding Cerro Solo. Just North of
in two provinces of Southern Argentina; Rio
the deposit, a number of outcroppings were
Negro and Chubut, both of which straddle
located in Rio Negro that generated a great
the geologically diverse Patagonia region.
deal of excitement amongst the geologists.
Despite being highly prospective uranium-
Blue Sky subsequently purchased a very
bearing regions, there had been next to no
large land package and flew a radiometric
exploration projects when the company
survey spanning 28,000km, which remains
arrived in the provinces, aside from the
to this day the largest flown for any metal in
atomic agency for Argentina’s (CNEA) deposit Argentina. in Chubut called Cerro Solo. “It was just amazing to see on a map almost “Initially, we teamed up with local exploration a quarter size of Switzerland all these geologists, they knew where we should be
radioactive anomalies that were popping up,”
focused and that’s always been the Grosso
recalls Cacos. “We were able to acquire really
Group modus operandi: Find the best experts large packages, almost an entire district of potential uranium discovery.”
MINING |Blue Sky Uranium
Resource Global Network After the airborne surveys, Blue Sky staked the properties and afterwards it was a matter of trying to locate the radiometric anomalies that had showed up on the surveys. “We sent a crew of geologists driving through the properties and it’s very interesting what they saw. Patagonia is a very flat and semiarid area in Argentina and its very sparsely populated, less so than Siberia. “Our team was following a typical dirt road in the area and were raking through the gravel just to clean it up and you could actually see this yellow carnotite right on the side, so the spectrometers in the geologists’ Jeep went off, they got out and within a matter of a few minutes they found the uranium.”
Amarillo Grande With the proliferation of uranium in the region all but confirmed by the geologists on the ground, Blue Sky began to put together a big geophysical mapping programme and conducted trenching to gauge how deep the uranium was occurring, before commencing a drill programme across the large, 140 x 50km land package which is now called Amarillo Grande. “We initially prospected over the entire 140km length of the project but decided in the last year to really focus on one area and we chose the Ivana area,” says Cacos. “We used some very focused geophysics, which turned out to be an excellent guide to how the mineralisation was flowing through.” The type of mineralisation present across the target is called a surficial type deposit, which tend to occur over large areas at a relatively low grade, comparable to uranium deposits found in Namibia or in Western Australia such as the Wiluna deposit. However, the results of a recent drill programme have allowed the company to expand the high grade core at the Ivana target by a further 1km, while
MINING |Blue Sky Uranium infill drilling results also revealed consistent higher grade thicknesses, including individual results as high as 10,517 ppm or > 1% uranium over 1m. These results are a significant mark-up on the low grades commonly found in the comparable African and Australian deposits, which tend to come in at around 500 ppm or 0.5% uranium. “Our results are really exciting because this is the type of economic grade that can really add up very quickly when you do a resource calculation. We have closed off a series of 3,000m of infill drilling at Ivana, and are very close to publishing our initial resource calculation.” With the resource calculation due in the first week of March, Cacos expects to see an immediate institutional following based on the high grades present in the deposit and the fact that Blue Sky picked up the property for pennies back when it had no real value. “We would become candidates for those uranium investors that are going to see not just the potential of this initial deposit but also that we now have a completely understood model that we can replicate in other areas in this property. We are sitting on an entire uranium deposit with the potential of up to 100 million pounds or more.” Blue Sky’s short term targets in 2018 are three-fold: To put out an initial resource
uninterrupted 25-ye which has been rip
Nik
Australian Resource Business Global Network
“We [the Grosso Group] have had an ear history of mineral exploration in Argentina, pe with opportunity because it is so unexplored�
kolaos Cacos, president and CEO, Blue Sky Uranium Corp
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Resource Global Network
estimation, to continue its geophysical
potential, as prices for the mineral have
programme that has been an excellent
soared in recent months owing to its
guide to discovery thus far, and to publish
usages as a steel hardener and in high-tech
a preliminary economic assessment on the
batteries.
resource. “We’ve always known about it but didn’t take “We are targeting what we believe is
much notice because vanadium was typically
economic in this environment today, and I
between $3-5 per pound, but now it fetches
want to demonstrate that,” says a confident
between $12-13 and all of a sudden it’s
Cacos. “If prices of uranium go up that’s
become a very significant metal.
fantastic, but we are focused on what would make money today.”
“This is a real game changer here, its giving the Amarillo Grande project an entire new
Finally, the occurrence of vanadium alongside
complexion.”
uranium at the Amarillo Grande deposit is also adding further juice to its economic
abj
Published by Anderson Murray Media Ltd
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