Overview
The Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan presents exceptional discovery and exploration opportunities for companies looking to enter the thriving uranium market. Uranium is poised for significant growth and the expected deficit in the supply side will create opportunities in the market. With new reactors continually coming online to meet demand and a limited number of suppliers to fill it, looking to high-value mining jurisdictions for uranium is one of the best strategies for companies trying to get ahead of the crowd.
Purepoint Uranium Group (TSXV:PTU,OTCQB:PTUUF) has been a major player in the Athabasca Basin for some time now, actively acquiring and operating an exploration pipeline of nine advanced projects, including its flagship Hook Lake project.
The Hook Lake project is a joint venture with two of the largest uranium mining majors in the world, Cameco Corporation and Orano Canada. With 21 percent ownership of Hook Lake, Purepoint acts as the operator of the joint venture.
The company has another high-value joint venture with its partner Cameco Corporation in its Smart Lake project, where Purepoint, as the operator, holds 27 percent ownership.
Outside its joint venture projects with the world’s largest uranium suppliers, Purepoint holds seven projects in the eastern Athabasca Basin, all 100 percent owned with clearly defined uranium-bearing targets that have been safely maintained to maximize their value in anticipation of continued uranium price revival.
As the market continues an exciting bull rally in uranium, Purepoint is emerging as the pre-eminent uranium explorer in the world’s richest uranium district.
Purepoint’s leadership team includes independent, highly qualified experts with deep provincial and regulatory ties, as well as decades of experience in the Athabasca Basin. Together, their expertise in mining, finance and exploration prime the company for exceptional growth and uranium discovery potential.
Company Highlights
Purepoint is advancing several projects toward discovery in the Athabasca Basin, the world’s richest uranium region.Apart from Hook Lake and Smart Lake, the company operates an additional seven, 100-percent-owned, highly prospective uranium projects in the Eastern Athabasca Basin, including the Turnor Lake, Red Willow, Henday Lake, Tabbernor, Tower, Carson and Russell South projects.The company has a world-class leadership team with unparalleled experience and exploration expertise in the Athabasca Basin.
Key Projects
Hook Lake Project
The Hook Lake property is located within the Patterson Uranium district and has nine claims totalling 28,598 hectares. The project is jointly owned by Cameco, Orano Canada and Purepoint Uranium. Operated by Purepoint since 2007, the project has seen significant discoveries and exploration campaigns.
Highlights of discovery on the property include the Spitfire high-grade discovery which revealed 53.3 percent uranium oxide over 1.3 meters, including a 10-meter interval of 10.3 percent uranium mineralization measurements. Three prospective structural “corridors” have been defined on the property, each consisting of multiple electromagnetic (EM) conductors confirmed by drilling.
In 2024, Purepoint completed 2,332 metres of drilling in four holes to test the success of the previous 2023 drill program that uncovered a significant 35-metre-wide boron halo surrounding a 0.08 percent U3O8 uranium intercept over 0.4 metres at hole CRT23-05. Boron is a key pathfinder element for uranium deposits. The 2024 drill program ended with the discovery of the newly identified Lightning Zone in the Carter Corridor, returning 0.9 metres of 0.29 percent U3O8 including 0.3 metres of 0.68 percent U3O8. associated with a major structure intersected by hole CRT24-10.
All the 2024 drill holes were collared northeast of CRT23-05, drilled in 2023, that intersected 0.08 percent U3O8 over 0.4 metres within a 15 metre wide graphitic shear zone with local brecciation and intense clay alteration.
All 2024 drill holes encountered elevated radioactivity.
Turnor Lake Project
Occupying 9,705 hectares on the eastern side of the Athabasca Basin, the 100 percent owned Turnor Lake Project is uniquely positioned across two major structural/conductive corridors, the LaRocque and Klaproth, that are both known for hosting significant uranium mineralization.
The La Rocque Structural Corridor, known for hosting the notable high-grade Hurricane uranium deposit (IsoEnergy) and the La Rocque Lake Zone (Cameco), spans a promising 7-kilometre strike length within the northern portion of the Turnor Lake project.
A 5,000 metre drilling is underway to explore priority targets along this key geological feature with the goal of uncovering substantial uranium mineralization akin to neighboring high-grade finds.
Red Willow Project
The 100 percent owned Red Willow property is situated on the eastern edge of the Athabasca Basin in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada and consists of 17 mineral claims having a total area of 40,116 hectares. The property is located close to several uranium deposits including Orano Resources Canada’s JEB mine, approximately 10 kilometres to the southwest, and Cameco’s Eagle Point mine that is approximately 10 kilometres due south.
Geophysical surveys conducted by Purepoint at Red Willow have included airborne magnetic and electromagnetic (VTEM) surveys, an airborne radiometric survey, ground gradient array IP, pole-dipole array IP, fixed-loop and moving-loop transient electromagnetics, and gravity. The detailed airborne VTEM survey provided magnetic results that are an excellent base on which to interpret structures while the EM results outlined over 70 kilometres of conductors that in most instances represent favourable graphitic lithology. A total of 21 conductive zones have been identified as priority exploration targets of which only seven have been subject to first pass drilling.
Three of the conductive areas, Osprey, Geneva and Radon, have returned anomalous uranium intercepts and were the focus of exploration programs conducted by Purepoint between 2021 and 2023.
Plans have been completed for this 2024 drill program that will initially target the Long Lake area where over 5 kilometres of favourable EM conductors remains to be drill tested and historic drilling intersected a 1.6 metre radioactive structure in LL08-05 that included 269 ppm uranium over 0.5 metres.
Smart Lake Project
Purepoint, as operator, holds a 27-percent ownership of the Smart Lake project in joint venture with Cameco Corp.
The Smart Lake property includes two claims with a total area of 9,860 hectares situated in the southwestern portion of the Athabasca Basin, approximately 60 km south of the former Cluff Lake mine and 18 kilometers west-northwest of Purepoint’s Hook Lake JV project.
Depth to the unconformity, where it occurs, is relatively shallow at less than 350 meters.
Aeromagnetic and electromagnetic patterns at Smart Lake reflect an extension of the patterns underlying the Shea Creek deposits (indicated resource of 68 million lbs at 1.50 percent U3O8; UEC PR Jan 2023) 55 kilometers north of the property. Exploration by Purepoint has firmly established the presence of anomalous uranium and hydrothermal alteration. Numerous priority target areas, where EM conductors are cross-cut by east-west structures, are yet to be drill-tested.
Like the Kianna fault at Shea Creek, known uranium mineralization at the Smart Lake project is associated with the intersection of the east-west Arthur Fault and north-south-striking fluid/chemical traps including the Shearwater conductor and chloritized mafic orthogneiss. The occurrence of low-grade uranium mineralization along the Arthur Fault away from Shearwater conductor underscores the need to target east-west structures both at the intersection with conductive anomalies and magnetically interpreted lithological contacts.
Additional east-west striking faults (Groomes Lake and Cristobal) have been interpreted from examination of airborne magnetic and electromagnetic surveys. These faults are spatially related to strong EM conductors identified in both airborne and ground-based geophysical surveys.
Purepoint plans to conduct stepwise moving loop and fixed loop transient EM surveys at the Smart Lake JV project. Survey results from the northern Groomes Lake conductor will be used to define discrete targets for the next step drilling.
Management Team
Chris Frostad – President and CEO
Chris Frostad is a founding partner bringing over 40 years of expertise to his position as president and CEO. He led public companies in both the technology and mining and metals industries.
Throughout his career, Frostad has been instrumental in building a variety of high-growth, early-stage, public and private companies.
Before Purepoint, he held numerous senior positions in the technology industry including CEO-in-residence of a Toronto-based venture capital firm. Frostad is a chartered accountant and a chartered professional accountant who began his career in international taxation with Deloitte.
Scott Frostad – VP of Exploration
Scott Frostad’s experience in the mining industry throughout Canada spans over three decades. He brings to his position as VP of exploration a background in mineral exploration with renowned mining companies such as Lac Minerals, Teck and Placer Dome. Most recently, he was the environmental specialist for Cogema Resources and managed environmental issues at both the Cluff Lake and McClean Lake Uranium Mines in Northern Saskatchewan.
Frostad is a graduate of Western University with a B.Sc. in geology and holds an M.A.Sc. in mining and mineral process engineering from the University of British Columbia. He is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia and the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan.
Ram Ramachandran – CFO
Before his position as CFO with Purepoint, Ram Ramachandran brings an 11-year tenure as deputy director and associate chief accountant with the Ontario Securities Commission. Most recently, Ramachandran provided advisory services in the area of litigation/compliance to numerous companies. To his credit, Ramachandran conceived, developed and launched the Canadian Securities Reporting Advisor – an online compliance tool for public companies.
Linda Tong – GIS Specialist
Linda Tong has been Purepoint Uranium’s GIS specialist since January 2006. She has over 20 years of experience in GIS application, GIS development, and computer programming.
Tong is a graduate of Wuhan University with a B.Sc. in computer science and application.
Jeanny So – Corporate Communications
Jeanny So has over 20 years of experience in operations, investor relations, sales and marketing in the financial industry and has executed corporate communication programs for several private and publicly-listed companies.