www.fission-energy.com
Fission Energy Corp. (TSX.V-FIS) is a Canadian based uranium exploration and development company with properties in Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin, Quebec, and the Macusani District in Peru. In 2010, Fission made a significant high grade uranium discovery at its Waterbury Lake property immediately adjacent to Rio Tinto's (formerly Hathor Exploration's) Roughrider Deposit, and in 2011 made a high grade boulder field discovery at its Patterson Lake South property. Both are located in Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin: home of the richest uranium deposits in the world.
Fission Energy boosts winter 2012 budget at Waterbury by 26% to $9.28 mln
Fission Energy Corp. (CVE:FIS)(OTCQX:FSSIF) said Thursday that it, together with its joint venture partner, have decided to boost the current winter 2012 exploration budget at their Waterbury Lake Uranium project by 26 percent to $9.28 million.
The additional funds will support an expanded four drill, 32,630 metre program at the Saskatchewan project, up from the initial planned three drill, 25,000 metre campaign.
The expanded drilling will be designed to supplement original plans for several high priority regional targets, including the Summit Zone, the Oban Corridor and Murphy Lake, Fission said.
This drilling will allow the company to further test the potential of these areas for hosting high grade Uranium mineralization.
Using four rigs, 88 drill holes will now be completed, as compared to the 69 holes originally planned.
The bulk of the drilling will be in the known mineralized areas of the project, including the high grade J Zone deposit, which will see a total of 49 holes during the program.
The Summit Zone will see a total of 11 drill holes, testing for mineralization around known occurrences, while the Oban Corridor and Murphy Lake will see 12 and 14 holes, respectively.
At Oban, one additional hole has been planned to follow up on anomalous mineralization discovered last year, Fission said.
The 40,256-hectare Waterbury Lake property is located in the eastern part of the Uranium-rich Athabasca Basin.
Earlier this month, Fission unveiled an NI 43-101 resource estimate for the J Zone deposit, with an indicated resource totalling 7,367,000 pounds of Uranium, based on 168,000 tonnes at an average grade of 1.99 percent Uranium.
An additional 1,511,000 pounds based on 150,000 tonnes averaging 0.46 percent Uranium is classified as an inferred mineral resource.
Low values for toxic elements such as arsenic and selenium compares favourably with Hathor's (TSE:HAT) Roughrider Uranium deposit, located immediately to the east, Fission Energy said last week.
Beginning in late August 2011, Hathor was subject to a takeover battle between mining giants Cameco Corp. (TSE:CCO)(NYSE:CCJ) and Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO)(LON:RIO), with the latter emerging as the winner with its $654 million friendly bid trumping Cameco's $625 million hostile offer.
Fission Energy was among Versant Partners' top picks for 2012, with the capital markets firm seeing "inevitable consolidation" for the company due to the proximity of Fission's Waterbury property to Hathor's Roughrider. Indeed, Fission's shares have rocketed around 58 percent since the initial bid by Cameco last August.
The latest resource estimate from Fission Energy does not include mineralization from the highly prospective Summit Zone, located 1,532 metres to the west of the deposit.
The J Zone Uranium discovery was announced in February, 2010.
Each successive drill program has expanded the J Zone deposit's current east-west strike length, beginning from approximately 30 metres west of the J East Zone, which in itself is an extension of the Hathor Roughrider Deposit, and extending for 578 metres to the west.
The J Zone Deposit remains open along strike, laterally as well as vertically over significant widths, thereby exhibiting significant potential for expanding the resource.
Fission is the operator of the winter 2012 exploration program, which is expected to be completed by mid-March, the company said.
The company holds the Waterbury property in partnership with the Korea Waterbury Uranium LP, which is a consortium primarily comprised of Korean-based companies, and led by Korea Electric Power (KEPCO).
