Categories: Energy
Topics: General Energy

F3 Uranium (TSX-V: FUU)(OTC: FISOF) President Ray Ashley on Expanding One of the Most Exciting Recent High-Grade Uranium Discoveries on the Planet by way of the Drill

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president of F3 Uranium — Mr. Ray Ashley. Ray, always a pleasure having you on. How are you today, sir?

Ray Ashley: I'm doing really well, Gerardo. Thank you for having me on. It's nice to talk to you always.

Gerardo Del Real: It's always great having you on. Listen, we talked earlier in the year about the uranium market that we saw developing. And that has played out perfectly, and I believe it continues to pick up steam going into 2024. So I thought it an opportune time to have you on and recap all of the developments of 2023. 

Obviously, you have this new exciting high-grade discovery. And then, let’s set the table for 2024. I'd love a recap, for those that maybe are looking for exposure to the uranium space, on what you were able to accomplish and where you're at today, I think is appropriate.

Ray Ashley: Sure. November, a year ago, we drilled a beautiful discovery hole: high-grade uranium; nice wide intersection. It's been characterized as the most exciting high-grade uranium discovery resource being drilled anywhere. We're very lucky to have started there.

Maybe I'll start by saying this… the uranium sector is hot, and all of the uranium companies in the sector are going up as the spot price is going up. The difference, really, between F3 and our peers is that we're a discovery story, and it started a year ago. 

And so what happened? Well, we started by raising money and carrying out a winter program to try and expand or get a sense of the size of the zone of uranium that we drilled into, which we call the JR Zone.

For our winter program, we managed to extend the strike length of the lens to 105 meters, hosted within the A1 Shear Zone, which is what we call it, at the very north end of the A1 Shear Zone, which is 3.6 km long. 

During the summer program, we continued and managed to extend the strike length of the JR Zone another 50% to its current 156 meters in strike length. And up-dip and down-dip in the structure, it's something like 45 meters. So it's a lens of mineralization that is just below the top of the basement rocks in an area where there are 60 meters of Athabasca sandstone overlying the basement, and it's a horizontal lens. 

So the summer program was very successful as it continued to hit wide and very strong mineralization; beautiful, beautiful high-grade intersections. We extended that drill program into the fall, and we just recently stopped the program for the Christmas break. We're currently planning and preparing to go back to work, probably mobilizing on January 5th to continue drilling. We've raised the flow through funds to be able to carry on… so we have C$17 million of flow through raised. And that will fund our ongoing exploration.

So, where are we right now? Well, most recently, we released the last 11 holes of the fall program. We’re at the stage now of trying to test the boundaries of this first lens called the JR Zone. And while doing that, we also, again, hit some nice high-grade intersections. 

In the last press release, on December 18th, we highlighted having intersected on 15S and 60S; those section lines produced some more off-scale radioactivity. The other thing we've started to do is to look for the next zone of mineralization along this 5-km-long corridor.

So where we are now is looking for additional mineralization. These types of deposits often occur as several zones along one structure. Here we have a 5-km-long structure. We found the first zone of mineralization at the north end of it. We started exploring with the summer exploration holes; one drill was testing along the corridor looking for the next zone while another drill continued to grow and expand the JR Zone.

Most recently, we've had extremely prospective geology being intersected at what we call the B1 Shear Zone. It's a parallel shear zone at the south end of A1, and we're hitting intense sandstone brecciation and faulting in the sandstone there. We're hitting clay alteration, silicification, and very intense brecciation. 

At the bottom of the sandstone, in hole 93, we found 10,800 ppm (parts per million) boron in hole 93, just 17 meters above the basement in the bottom of the sandstone. And the only other place we see boron — elevated boron like that in all of the drilling we've done at A1 and B1 — is right above the JR Zone high-grade mineralized lens. So that boron is very significant. 

Most recently, we drilled a hole 200 meters to the north of that. And that hole had even better alteration in the sandstone faulting brecciation and in the basement below intense deformation. Those are all signs, to us, that down there at B1, the geology is really indicative of another zone in close proximity to high-grade uranium. 

In the fall, we started a ground 3D-DCIP resistivity survey. It's a very modern 3D survey. And that's still being done right now. It's still ongoing. That survey covers the B1 area and, as well, the JR Zone. 

And what we're also awaiting is the geochemistry from the drill core from the last 11 holes that we've reported. That geochemistry doesn't just give us uranium assays, it also gives us 32-Element-ICP, which is the geochemistry of all of the other elements. 

Gerardo Del Real: Let me ask you something really quick because it's clear to me from hearing the description of the work programs that are ongoing and the drill programs that are coming, that, with Dennison coming in in October 2023 with a C$15 million strategic investment, that there's the potential for F3 to be taken out. 

And I have to believe that the company is aggressively wanting to prove out as many discoveries and as much value in the ground before that materializes. Would that be accurate?

Ray Ashley: It's very accurate; it's exactly the case. We don't know when that might happen. It would be obvious that F3 is a takeover target given this significant discovery. But you're absolutely right that we're going forward. 

I am lucky to work with a team who's seen three of these high-grade deposits and worked on them and expanded them and defined them. We have the funds in place, we have the expertise, we're going after it, and we're moving forward. 

We see all of the signs that there's additional mineralization at B1. Now, we're going to have the geochemistry and the ground geophysics to help us target and narrow in and focus in on the other mineralization that stands to be there. And absolutely, if we tap into another zone, I think it's pretty clear that our market cap will go up. And it would be nice to do that before an auction has started if that stands to happen.

Gerardo Del Real: I couldn't agree more. Ray, it's always a pleasure catching up. It's clearly an exciting time, and I cannot wait for 2024. I want to wish you and all your loved ones a Merry Christmas, a great holiday, and a great New Years. And let's make sure we pick up this conversation on the other side of 2023.

Ray Ashley: Absolutely, we'll be at it early in the new year, and I'll be happy to give you an update as we go. Merry Christmas to you as well, and thank you as always for having me.

Gerardo Del Real: Always a pleasure, sir. Thank you.

Ray Ashley: Take care.

 

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