U3O8 Discovers Potential Large Area of Shallow Uranium-Vanadium Mineralization

TORONTO - U3O8 Corp. has identified a mineralized area located on the southern extension of its Laguna Salada Deposit in Chubut Province, Argentina. The La Susana discovery contains similar near-surface, free-digging mineralization to Laguna Salada and has potential to add to the current uranium-vanadium resource defined in accordance with National Instrument 43-101.

The uranium-vanadium mineralization at La Susana is typical of the Laguna Salada Deposit and has a footprint that is potentially double the size of the current resource - suggesting considerable resource growth potential and reaffirming the district-scale prospects of the region. A larger resource could further enhance the economics of the project, which are being defined in a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) that is nearing completion on the initial deposit at Laguna Salada. With an advanced uranium project in a country committed to bringing more nuclear reactors online and a joint venture currently being negotiated with Petrominera Chubut S.E., the provincial mining company, U3O8 Corp. is positioning Laguna Salada as a potential low-cost, near-term producer in Argentina.

La Susana Discovery is a Southern Extension of the Laguna Salada Deposit

Mineralization at La Susana is typical of the Laguna Salada style uranium-vanadium that is found at shallow depth in free-digging gravels. Uranium and vanadium at Laguna Salada was initially discovered along the edge of the gravel mesas where the mineralized layer, which is capped by a layer of barren gravel on the top of the mesas, comes to surface. It was only with trenching and pitting in the interior of the mesas that the extent of the mineralization became clear at Laguna Salada.

A similar situation extends to the La Susana area, where the uranium-vanadium bearing layer has been traced along the western and eastern edges of the mesa, some 10 km to 15km apart. The mineralized layer at La Susana lies at an average depth of 0.5 meters below surface. The next step in exploration of La Susana is pitting and trenching to determine the extent of mineralization beneath the barren cap in an area of about 100 square kilometers.

Vertical channel samples defined an average grade of 78ppm uranium (U3O8) and 290ppm vanadium (V2O5) from a gravel layer averaging 0.5m thick at La Susana. Mineralization at La Susana is hosted in the same unconsolidated gravel unit that hosts the Guanaco sector of the Laguna Salada Deposit. Screening to remove the pebbles and coarse sand from the mineralized fines at Laguna Salada, concentrated over 90% of its uranium in about 10% of the gravel's original mass, resulting in a 10-11 times increase of uranium grades. The soft, unconsolidated gravel in the Laguna Salada Deposit is amenable to low-cost continuous surface mining that involves no blasting or crushing, and alkaline leaching to extract the uranium and vanadium with a solution of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and washing soda (sodium carbonate).