A-Cap unlocking Botswana uranium potential
Botswana may be on the way of joining the ranks of uranium producing countries following the announcement by Australian company, A-Cap Resources Ltd, Tuesday of calcrete hosted uranium mineralization at Mokobaesi, north of the capital Gaborone.
The Mokobaesi uranium prospect lies in the vicinity of diamond company Debswana’s Lethlakane mine in an area whose uranium mineralization was first identified close to the surface by Falconbridge in the 1970s.
In a statement announcing the first progress report on the Mokobaesi drilling programme, A-Cap Resources said it has discovered up to three zones of flat-lying mineralization in the Karoo Sandstone underneath the calcrete to a depth of 35 metres, and new mineralised zones, outside the previous Mokobaesi exploration grid, have been discovered in the Karoo Sandstone ”considerably increasing the exploration potential of the prospect”.
It said 50 percent of all the holes drilled at the prospect intersected mineralised zones of significant grade and thickness, with the highest grade from radiometric logging encountered being 0.3 metres at 1500 equivalent U3O8 ppm.
A-Cap said the first hole drilled, MOKD0001, a vertical diamond hole drilled to
72 metres, encountered three zones of visible uranium mineralization distinguished by the presence of carnotite – a common uranium bearing mineral in many calcrete hosted uranium deposits.
The company said only 20 percent of the planned drilling programme, which commenced on October 22, has been completed and 8,000 more metres still have to be drilled.
”The board is especially encouraged by the results from holes MOKR 0056 to 0060, which are at the southern end of the 7200 mE grid line. These results, define up to three zones of flat-lying, shallow mineralization, continuous over 200m within Karoo sandstone. These zones are open to the south and lie outside the main part of the previously defined radiometric anomaly, opening up further prospective areas which will need follow up,” said the statement by Pat Volpe, the company’s chairman.
”In order to prioritise ongoing exploration A-CAP will be commissioning a major airborne radiometric survey over Lethlakhane and also to the north. This work will form part of an ongoing aggressive exploration programme in 2007,” he added.
