Macusani Yellowcake Announces Initial Uranium Resource Estimate for Kihitian Property
CONTAINED U308 INDICATED RESOURCES OF 1.35 MILLION POUNDS AND INFERRED RESOURCES OF 10.57 MILLION POUNDSTORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 06/21/12 -- Macusani Yellowcake Inc. (the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: YEL) (FRANKFURT: QG1) is pleased to announce the results of a NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate for the Chilcuno Chico drill area of the Company's Kihitian Property on the Macusani Plateau in southern Peru. The mineral resource estimate was completed by The Mineral Corporation, South Africa. A complete NI 43-101 technical report containing the mineral resource estimate will be filed on SEDAR as soon as available.
- Indicated Resources: 0.91 M tonnes at a grade of 673ppm U3O8 (1.35 lbs/ton) for 1.35 M lbs U3O8;
- Inferred Resources: 9.32 M tonnes at a grade of 514ppm U3O8 (1.03 lbs/ton) for 10.57 M lbs U3O8;
The Company's CEO, Peter Hooper, stated, "We are very pleased to see that our sustained exploration efforts through shallow and deeper drilling zones have been able to prove successful at Chilcuno Chico with a higher-grade uranium mineral resource being defined. This demonstrates the strength of our exploration model as well as the professionalism of our exploration team on site. It is worthwhile mentioning that less than half of the Chilcuno Chico target has been drilled to date and that there are at least another 8 target anomalies within the Kihitian concession. Furthermore, the recently announced merger with Southern Andes will enhance the size of these high-grade targets at Kihitian as several of our targets extend into this newly acquired ground. The company is well positioned to enlarge this resource towards the end of the year. Combined with our other projects on the Macusani Plateau we now have an aggregate of 11.8 million lbs U308 in the measured and indicated categories and 27.6 million lbs in the inferred category which has come from a relatively small portion of our target areas."
Previous assay data, maps and a sample cross section are available on the Company's website at www.macyel.com/kihitian/.
The Kihitian resource estimate was calculated based on 56 drill holes. The boreholes located at Chilcuno Chico have intersected two mineralized horizons or "mantos": Manto A and, roughly 100m below, Manto B. The drilling initially started south of the adits excavated by IPEN in the 1980's and targeted what is now largely considered to be the Manto A uranium-bearing zone. Roughly 100m below Manto A a new uranium-bearing zone was discovered, namely Manto B. This Manto B displays a more consistent continuity and is more robust at depth than Manto A. Between Manto A and Manto B there are at least another two smaller uranium-bearing zones that would play a considerable role in reducing the stripping-ratio of a future mine in the event these mantos or parts of them would be mined using open-pit mining methods. These minor uranium zones have not been included in this mineral resource estimate but may be included in future mineral resource estimates.
It is important to note that this maiden mineral resource at Chilcuno Chico in Kihitian has been calculated using a 10% geological loss, which the Company considers to be high, considering that a large part of it is likely to be mined by open-pit mining methods.
The main economic uranium minerals at Chicuno are autunite and meta-autunite hosted by a porous Miocene rhyolite that display high metallurgical recoveries in very diluted acid leaching solutions.
The Chilcuno Chico mineral resource table appears below followed by explanations provided by The Mineral Corporation (in quotations) describing the mineral resource estimation methodology.
Indicated Mineral Resource - Chilcuno Chico
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Cut-off U grade tonnes lbs U3O8grade U3O8grade
(ppm U) (ppm U) (000s) U3O8(000s) (ppm) (lbs/ton)
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100 571 910 1 350 673 1.35
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Inferred Mineral Resource - Chilcuno Chico
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Cut-off U grade tonnes lbs U3O8grade U3O8grade
(ppm U) (ppm U) (000s) U3O8(000s) (ppm) (lbs/ton)
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100 436 9 322 10 570 514 1.03
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This mineral resource estimate in Chilcuno Chiuco brings the total available mineral resource drilled to date by the Company to 11.8 million lbs of in-situ U3O8 in the measured and indicated categories and 27.6 million lbs in the inferred category as illustrated in the table below.
Macusani NI 43-101 Compliant Resources
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Corachapi Colibri 2 & 3 Kihitian
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0.3 M lbs (1.0 M t)
0.014% U3O8 (0.28
Measured (i) lbs/ton) n/a n/a
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4.7 M lbs (10.6 M t) 5.4 M lbs (9.2 M t) 1.4 M lbs (0.9 M t)
0.020% U3O8 (0.40 0.027% U3O8 (0.53 0.067% U3O8 (1.35
Indicated (i) lbs/ton) lbs/ton) lbs/ton)
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1.9 M lbs (3.8 M t) 15.1 M lbs (34.3 M t) 10.6 M lbs (9.3 M t)
0.023% U3O8 (0.46 0.020% U3O8 (0.40 0.051% U3O8 (1.03
Inferred (i) lbs/ton) lbs/ton) lbs/ton)
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(i) NI 43-101 resource category at a 75 ppm cut-off grade for Corachapi
and Colibri 2 & 3, and a 100 ppm cut-off grade for Kihitian.
"The Mineral Resources of June 2012 have been estimated on the basis of drilling and analytical results. The identified Mineral Resources are based on samples taken from crushed diamond drilled core. 56 boreholes have been completed from a series of platforms, with up to 5 boreholes drilled radially from each platform. The resulting separation distance between intersections of the mineralised zone is a maximum of 175m.
Full-core samples have been taken, owing to the friable nature of the mineralisation and host rocks. These samples are crushed and representative samples analysed for uranium (U) abundance. The necessary quality control and assurance has been completed by insertion of reference material, duplicate samples and blank material.
Uranium mineralisation in the two mineralised zones is visible in the core, and identifiable by hand-held radiometric instruments. The Mineral Corporation utilised a nominal cut-off of 25ppm to delineate the evaluation cuts, but typically the edges of the zones are sharp, and the U abundance increase sharply within the cut. Two distinct zones referred to as Mantos A and Mantos B are identified, which are separated vertically by about 100m, and which both outcrop at surface. The maximum depth of Manto A is approximately 110m and of Manto B, approximately 240m. The zones were wireframed to constrain the evaluation, and Ordinary Kriging was carried out within the wireframes, using composites which were corrected for true thickness. The zones have a shallow dip of between 5 and 10 degrees and have an average thickness of 6m and 8.5m for Mantos A and B respectively."
Qualified Person
Mr. David Robert Young, B.Sc. (Hons), FGSSA, MSAIMM, FAusIMM, Pr Sci Nat (400989/83) of The Mineral Corporation, South Africa, an independent consultant to the Company, is a Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument 43-101, and has prepared or supervised the preparation of, or has reviewed and approved, the scientific and technical data contained in this release.
About Macusani Yellowcake
Macusani Yellowcake Inc. is a Canadian uranium exploration and development company focussed on the exploration of its properties on the Macusani Plateau in south-eastern Peru. The Company owns a 99.5% interest in concessions which cover over 90,000 hectares (900 km2) and are situated near significant infrastructure. Macusani Yellowcake is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol 'YEL' and the Frankfurt Exchange under the symbol 'QG1'. The Company has 167,047,475 shares outstanding. For more information please visit www.macyel.com.
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This news release includes certain forward-looking statements concerning the future performance of Macusani's business, operations and financial performance and condition, as well as management's objectives, strategies, beliefs and intentions. Forward-looking statements are frequently identified by such words as "may", "will", "plan", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend" and similar words referring to future events and results. Forward-looking statements are based on the current opinions and expectations of management. All forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, fluctuating commodity prices, competitive risks and the availability of financing, as described in more detail in the Company's recent securities filings available at www.sedar.com. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements and Macusani cautions against placing undue reliance thereon. Neither Macusani nor its management assume any obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
Macusani Yellowcake Inc.
Peter Hooper
President and CEO
+1-416-360-3402
peter@macyel.com
www.macyel.com