Jourdan Resources - Baie-Johan-Beetz Project

PROPERTY LOCATION ( Click to Zoom Maps and Images )

The Baie-Johan-Beetz property is easily accessed via Provincial Highway #138 joining Montreal to Natashquan, via the communities of Sept-Iles, Havre-St-Pierre and Baie-Johan-Beetz. The property’s South and North Claim Blocks are located 5 km and 7 km north-northeast of Kilometer 1312, 25 km due east of Baie-Johan-Beetz. The regional east-west power line runs 2 km south of the South Claim Block.

Access to the mineral claims is excellent year-round and the main outcrops of the South Claim Block can be reached directly using trails for all terrain vehicles (4x4 ATV’s, multi-wheeled ARGO’S) suitable for swamps and marshes in roughly 4 hours from Provincial Highway #138 at Kilometer 1312. Sept-Iles, located 285 km to the west is the main administrative center of the North Shore region, where heavy machinery, fuel, and other equipments can be easily assembled.

EXPLORATION HISTORY

The 1960’s exploration work tried to establish a link between the Wakeham Basin and uranium mineralization of the Athabasca-type which was also being explored at the same time. The Athabasca eventually yielded high grade uranium mineralization.

North Shore Uranium completed an airborne scintillometer survey in 1968, along the eastern border of the Wakeham Basin. The survey outlined a number of northeast-southwest trending faults. These kilometric long faults were believed to be related to the subsidence of the Wakeham Basin, and were believed to be uranium carriers. Lesseps Mining (1968) completed trenching and rock sampling within the current Jourdan South Claim Block and delineated uranium mineralization within north-northeast trending granites, pegmatites and gneisses. Additional work by Rouanda Mining in the 1970’s within Jourdan’s North Claim Block also identified uranium in pegmatites some 3 km to the northeast of the Lesseps Mining uranium zone.

The South Claim Block uranium zone, the Drucourt Zone, varied in width from 40 m to 150 m and was investigated over a 500 m length. Uranium grades in the trenches were approximately 0.5 lbs/ton (0.025%) U₃O₈. The uranium bearing minerals, such as uraninite and uranophane, were identified in coarse grained granites and pegmatites. Mineralization in the North Claim Block was outlined in 10 different narrow corridors. The main “A-A1” Zone appeared continuous over a 400 m long interval with grades under 0.250 lbs/ton (0.013%) U₃O₈.

For a detailed summary of historical exploration, consult our PDF document

BAIE-JOHAN-BEETZ GEOLOGY

The property is located in the Grenville Structural Province (the ”Grenville”) of the Canadian Shield. The Grenville experienced the last Precambrian episode of orogenic mountain building accompanied by folding. Although the rocks had for the most part been involved in earlier orogenies, the extensive reworking that occurred in Grenville time imposed high grade regional metamorphic effects that erased much of the evidence of the earlier metamorphism.

The property hosts migmatites and gneisses, gneissic granites, quartzites, quartzo-feldspathic gneisses, amphibolites, fine grained aplitic to coarse grained granites and pegmatites. The quartzites and quartzo-feldspathic gneisses belong to the Wakeham Basin. Regional structures trend north to northwest, and display large-scale curvilinear folding. The core areas of folds expose granites. The gneisses are variously draped around the cores or have been partially consumed by the granite plutons.

Granites vary in colour from white to pink and granularity varies from very fine (aplites) to medium-grained more uniform granites to extremely coarse-grained, very heterogeneous pegmatites exhibiting interior quartz veins, centimetre to almost meter sized individual feldspar crystals, large bronze to black coloured biotite, magnetite and/or ilmenite grains. The pegmatitic granites and pegmatites tend to show higher and more uniform radioactivity. There is evidence of at least two ages of pegmatite development – one, an older group, generally forms narrow sills and dykes that cut the gneisses and migmatites, and feather out along the prevailing foliation and schistosity. The second, younger group of pegmatites cuts indiscriminately across the older pegmatites and has well-defined sharp contacts with the enclosing rocks.

For a detailed summary of property geology, consult our PDF document

URANIUM MINERALIZATION

The property area is underlain by pegmatites containing disseminated uranium mineralization linked to pegmatites in gneisses and amphibolites. The South Claim Block uranium zone, the Drucourt Zone, was investigated over a 500 m length in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Geophysical surveys, trenching and sampling outlined a 40 m to 150 m wide zone with uranium grades running approximately 0.5 lbs/ton (0.025%) U₃O₈. The uranium bearing minerals, such as uraninite and uranophane, were identified in coarse grained granites and pegmatites.

Mineralization in the North Claim Block was outlined in 10 different narrow corridors, with the main “A-A1” Zone being more or less continuous over a 400 m long interval with grades under 0.250 lbs/ton (0.013%) U₃O₈.

Follow up drilling in the late 1970’s on the South and North Claim Blocks was able to confirm the earlier surface work. In the case of the South Claim Block mineralization, there was reasonable continuity of a portion of the uranium mineralization over a 230 m length as a series of subparallel metric zones from surface to a -50 m depth with grades generally under 0.5 lbs/ton U₃O₈.

On the North Claim Block, historic results also showed reasonable continuity of a uranium-bearing corridor, but not necessarily continuity of individual mineralized zones. Drill holes RL-78-7 and RL-78-9 gave 0.131 lbs/ton (0.007%) U₃O₈ over 41.93 m and 0.091 lbs/ton (0.005%) U₃O₈ over 50.78 m. The gneisses were also known to be radioactive and contain anomalous uranium with one of the historic parties reporting tonnage potential at the time.

The drill data from 1976 and 1978 was used by Minorex in 2006 to determine a “potential resource” of between 17 and 18 million tons grading between 0.48 and 0.52 lbs/ton (from 0.024% to 0.026%) U₃O₈ or between 9 and 10 million lbs of U₃O₈ covering a 500 m strike length of the main uranium mineralization. The potential resource estimate is non-compliant to NI 43-101 Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, and therefore should not be relied upon, but should only be considered as an indication of the uranium mineralization and not necessarily indicative of the mineral potential. A Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify the potential as current Mineral Resources.

In the property area, the historic evidence suggests the uranium mineralization is contained in a series of parallel zones, up to 10 zones, within a 400 m wide by minimum 3 km long corridor, open at both ends and at depth, which contains the current South and North Claim Blocks. The disseminated nature of the uranium and its link to pegmatites does suggest a Rössing-type uranium model.

For a detailed summary of property mineralization, consult our PDF document

CONCLUSIONS AND WORK PROGRAMS

The author of the NI 43-101 Technical Report is of the opinion that the property is of sufficient merit for initiating mineral exploration, since the property hosts historic mineral resources of 17.5 million tonnes grading 0.025% (0.5 lbs/ton) U₃O₈, and is still open at depth and laterally. The Uranium system on the property has only been investigated over individual lengths of 400 m to 500 m, and is part of a continuous Uranium corridor extending for 9 km based on the airborne radiometrics. The property is also in the same geological context as other historic and current mineral resources, particularly Uracan Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: URC) NI 43-101 Mineral Resources of 154.9 million tonnes at 0.012% (0.24 lbs/ton) U₃O₈. This alone gives the property significant uranium potential or blue-sky upside. If the Uranium model is a Rössing-type setting, then the upside could be in the several 100’s of million tonnes.

This potential can only be demonstrated through further exploration work, since there is insufficient data to derive a final model and a size potential to the Uranium mineralization on the property. The property has the potential to host signficant Uranium mineral resource. Previous work on the property and in the area have shown large volume potential, with grades in the order of 0.01% to 0.02% U₃O₈, and more importantly the presence elsewhere in similar environments of higher grades. Higher grades may be much more common than previously believed, given the large untested areas beneath the overburden and lakes.

The recommended work consists of a two-phased exploration program (Phases 1 and 2) with a minimum expenditure level required to confirm or validate the historic work in Phase 1 and prioritize targets for a follow up Phase 2 Mineral Resource delineation. The target would be a high tonnage and low grade Uranium based on the Rössing Deposit of Namibia.

Drill Hole Proposals (existing drill holes performed by Placer/Canex 1974-1976):
Section D-1,D-2,D-3,D-4 Section D-5,D-6,D-7

The Phase 1 exploration program (6 months) would have the objective of validating the historic Uranium results on the property. The minimum work requirement for Phase 1 would include compilation, statistical treatment and synthesis of historic geological, geophysical and exploration databases (Phase 1A) and lineament study (Phase 1B) from air-photo and LANDSAT imagery to define intrusive and fracture patterns, including faults that may host Uranium occurrences, to prepare and plan follow up field prospecting and geological mapping Phase 1C) with channel and/or trench sampling, if required; followed by validation drilling (Phase 1D), all to validate the uranium based geological model and test the mineral resource potential, and with success planning of the next phase or exploration work (Phase 1E). The area is already covered by a high resolution airborne (helicopter) geophysical survey (Magnetic, Electromagnetic and Gamma-Ray Spectrometry) and historic lake-bottom sediment geochemistry data which will be synthesized in the Phase 1 work program.

The Phase 2 exploration program (12 months) would have the objective of diamond drilling (Phase 2A) followed by synthesis and report writing (Phase 2B).

For technical maps, figures and historical data, consult our NI 43-101 summary report in PDF format