The Douglas River rare earth property consists of two claims approximately 21 km south of the former Cluff Lake Uranium Mine and approximately 420 km NW of La Ronge SK. The showings consist of stratabound xenotime (YPO4) mineraliazation within the Otherside River Formation of the Athabasca Group, the host of the Unconformity type uranium deposits. In addition to significant yttrium (Y), the showings host significant heavy rare earth mineralization (“HREE”: elements Europium through Lutetium).
Location Map
Map showing the location of Douglas River properties in northern Saskatchewan. The Carswell Structure is the location of the Cluff Lake Uranium Mine-a former producer.
Geology and Mineralization
The project is located in the southwestern portion of the Athabasca Basin. The Athabasca Group sediments unconformably overlie the crystalline basement and consist of the Manitou Falls, Lazenby Lake, Wolverine Point, Locker Lake, Otherside and Turna Lake Formations. The sediments are generally flat lying and undeformed, except within the Carswell structure (approximately 15 km to the north) where they are shallow to steeply dipping and locally overturned. Both the Carswell and Douglas Formations are only preserved in the vicinity of the Carswell Structure. Both the sandstone and basement rocks in the region are crosscut by several generations of diabase dikes which are largely northwest to east trending.
Mineralization consists of fine to medium grained, moderately foliated hematitic sandstone, which contains little interstitial clay. Beige to pink laminated sandstone, with pebble units separating the homogenous laminae, is also present. Bedding in the sandstone has a strike of 98° to 100° and a dip of 6° to 10°NE and apparent current bedding strikes 055° and dips 20°NW. The rare earth mineralization is present as narrow stratabound mineralized lenses of very fine grained xenotime confined to an area bounded by prominent fractures. The mineralized lenses are parallel to bedding. Trench and surface sampling of samples give grades of up to 4.8% P2O, 4.9% Y, 9100 ppm Dy, 2990 ppm Er, 1440 ppm Yb and 2150 ppm Tb.
Historical Results
From 1968 to 2003, the area around the Douglas River property underwent significant exploration activity for uranium. The most substantive work was carried out by Marline Oil Corporation between 1977 and 1982. During the detailed examination of a regional radiometric anomaly Marline discovered that some of the samples contained yttrium concentration of between 3-10% (based on semi-quantitative analyses). The outcrops that the anomalous Y samples were obtained from were trenched but no additional work was conducted at that time. In 1984 the property was acquired and worked on by Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation and they focused their efforts on the yttrium-rare earth enriched areas discovered by Marline.
Selected results from the SMDC work are presented below:
| Oxide |
Sample
85101 (ppm) |
Sample
85102 (ppm) |
Sample
85121(ppm) |
Sample
85122 (ppm) |
| Cerium |
28 |
42 |
12 |
48 |
| Dysprosium |
28 |
22 |
8,998 |
7609 |
| Erbium |
22 |
14 |
3,419 |
1818 |
| Gadolinium |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Holmium |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Lanthanum |
9 |
12 |
6 |
6 |
| Lutetium |
2 |
2 |
164 |
68 |
| Neodymium |
23 |
17 |
24 |
64 |
| Praseodymium |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Samarium |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Terbium |
6 |
6 |
1,183 |
1590 |
| Thulium |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Ytterbium |
6 |
3 |
1,640 |
649 |
| Yttrium |
194 |
91 |
62,608 |
50,544 |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Total REO |
324 |
219 |
78,160 |
62,675 |
| 1) LREO % |
18.8 |
32.4 |
0.1 |
0.2 |
| 2) HREO % |
81.2 |
67.6 |
99.9 |
99.8 |
| |
| 1) LREO represents total light rare earth oxides comprising lanthanum to samarium as oxides. |
| 2) HREO represents total heavy rare earth oxides comprising yttrium plus europium through lutetium as oxides. |
The results show the high proportion of heavy rare earths present in the Douglas River mineralization, in particular dysprosium and erbium.
Current Work
In August, 2009, a company exploration crew located the main SMDC trench and took a combination of chip and panel samples with the initial goal of confirming the historic assay values. The trench is approximately 17 metres long and five metres wide in medium-grained hematitic sandstone. Areas for chip and panel sampling were selected based on scintillometer readings for total radioactivity with sampling focused on areas with higher-than-background readings.
Samples were processed at the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) laboratory in Saskatoon, Sask., an ISO-accredited institution. Standards and duplicate samples were employed and analyzed by lithium metaborate/tetraborate fusion and nitric acid digestion followed by ICP-MS analysis. The program was successful in confirming the historic assays of mineralization in the trench, with values as high as 8.75 per cent TREO including Dy2O3 assayed at 1.15 per cent.
ASSAY RESULTS
| Sample No. |
Sample Type |
LREO% |
HREO% |
incl Dy2O3 |
TREO% |
HREO/TREO |
| 202608 |
Chip |
0.02 |
3.59 |
0.44 |
3.61 |
99.4 |
| 202609 |
Chip |
0.01 |
6.31 |
0.82 |
6.32 |
99.8 |
| 202610 |
Chip |
0.01 |
8.74 |
1.15 |
8.75 |
99.9 |
| 202611 |
Chip |
0.02 |
5.84 |
0.74 |
5.86 |
99.7 |
| 202612 |
Chip |
0.01 |
1.15 |
0.14 |
1.16 |
99.1 |
| 202613 |
Chip |
0.01 |
4.24 |
0.54 |
4.25 |
99.8 |
| 202614 |
Chip |
0.01 |
1.41 |
0.17 |
1.42 |
99.3 |
| 202615 |
Chip |
0.01 |
3.02 |
0.39 |
3.03 |
99.7 |
| 202616 |
Chip |
0.01 |
3.46 |
0.45 |
3.47 |
99.7 |
| 202617 |
Chip |
0.01 |
5.07 |
0.64 |
5.08 |
99.8 |
| 202618 |
Chip |
0.01 |
3.55 |
0.46 |
3.56 |
99.7 |
| 202619 |
Chip |
0.01 |
4.45 |
1.57 |
4.46 |
99.8 |
| 202922 |
Panel |
0.01 |
0.07 |
0.01 |
0.08 |
87.5 |
| 202923 |
Panel |
0.01 |
1.90 |
0.23 |
1.91 |
99.5 |
| 202924 |
Panel |
0.01 |
0.07 |
0.01 |
0.08 |
87.5 |
1. HREO represents total heavy rare earth oxides, comprising yttrium plus
europium to lutetium as oxides.
2. TREO represents total rare earth oxides, comprising HREO plus lanthanum
to samarium as oxides.
3. The panel sampling covered approximately four square metres of the west
wall of the main trench and included mineralized and non-mineralized rock.
Outlook
Planning for the next phase of exploration is underway and details will be announced once they are finalized. Under consideration are further ground geochemistry surveys including Mobile Metal Ion ("MMI") followed by diamond drilling.
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