Categories: Energy / Mining Stocks
Topics: General Energy / Uranium Stocks

Strathmore Plus Uranium (TSX-V: SUU)(OTC: SUUFF) Director and P.Geo. John DeJoia on Advancing Multiple ISR-Potential Uranium Properties in Wyoming via the Drill Bit

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is director and P.Geo. of Strathmore Plus Uranium — Mr. John DeJoia. John, it is a pleasure as always to have you on. How are you today, sir?

John DeJoia: I'm doing well, and it's always a pleasure to talk with you.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, let's get right into it. We've had what I view, and we talked a bit off air, as a really healthy correction in the uranium space. We've seen a surge from the US$70/lb level to the $110/lb level. 

We've pulled back to the US$94 to US$95 per pound level. I think it's healthy. I wanted to get your thoughts on the uranium space, and then we can pivot a bit to what should be an exciting 2024.

John DeJoia: Well, I see things much as you do. It jumped pretty high, pretty fast… and, truly, no one can take advantage of it. So slinking back a little bit is probably a good correction. However, we still need those high prices.

Gerardo Del Real: I couldn't agree more. If we're talking baseball parlance, right, I like to use the baseball analogy: What inning, out of nine innings, what inning do you think we're in in this uranium bull market?

John DeJoia: Well, having started in it over 50 years ago, it feels like we're in the 13th inning! However, looking at it in the past few years, we're probably in the second inning.

Gerardo Del Real: I like it… that's music to my ears and I couldn't agree more. I think we're in the second or third inning at most. Strathmore Plus just closed a financing for just over C$1.4 million. What do you plan on allocating that capital towards because I know 2024 is going to be a pivotal year for a lot of uranium companies — Strathmore Plus Uranium included. 

And I have to say, I think that by the end of 2024, we're going to see a distinction between companies that have projects of merit and assets that can be advanced to add value… and companies that are just trying to catch the wave and get higher share prices off of the uranium bull market. I think that'll come to an end by year-end.

So I would love to hear how that capital is going to be allocated and what the focus is going to be here for the rest of the year?

John DeJoia: Our focus, once the weather breaks… as you know, our properties are located in Wyoming, and we're very happy about that because that's one of the best permitting environments in the country and possibly the world.

For this year, most of the money that we've brought in will be allocated towards drilling at Agate and Beaver Rim because we need to find out what's there. We drilled 100 holes at Agate last year, and 93% of them hit mineralization at some good thicknesses and decent grades. 

We had one hole with 16 feet of 0.08% eU3O8 and another one with 21 feet of 0.09% eU3O8. Those are good grade thicknesses. They're contained between two aquitards in a porous sandstone. Our goal at Agate is to essentially define what we've got there. We covered a fairly small area last year… and we're hoping to drill 200 holes at Agate this year.

Now, they're shallow holes but even shallow holes take money. We're still talking a lot of money just to drill even at $15 per foot. So we're talking reclamation; we may try to put in a monitor well or two because we feel Agate is bound for ISR (In-situ recovery).

And it's very shallow. I don't want to call it a deposit yet but I think I’ll be able to by the end of summer. Yet, in terms of mineralized areas, very few of these ISRs are less than 150 feet thick, and this one is below the water table. So that's where a good portion of our money, probably 30% of our recent raise, will go.

The other large use of our money will be on Beaver Rim. Now, Terrence Osier and I have both drilled up there in the past. Terrence is our vice president of exploration. And when we were with the former Strathmore Minerals — the predecessor to our current Strathmore Plus — he was up there drilling, and he hit stacked roll fronts in a couple of holes. 

We divested after he had done that drilling but we feel that we're going to find more of that. This is the old mineralizing area for the whole Gas Hills. And the Gas Hills were the biggest producer in Wyoming and probably the second biggest producer in the country. Basically, a lot of ore came out of the Gas Hills.

Now, we're up on Beaver Rim. Just down from the top of Beaver Rim, there are two old underground shafts: The old Atlas Shaft to the southwest of us (actually, it's to the northwest but it's southwest of the property, and they mine quite a bit out of there, and they've got good production numbers), and the old UPZ Shaft to the northeast. 

The UPZ Shaft was on the properties that I used to work with out there with Federal American Partners. We had a brand new shaft down to ore at around 900 feet. I've actually been in the shaft and have sampled the ore. And our properties are just to the south of this. So we're in the conduit area, the old mineralizing channels, where all of the ore moved through and into the Gas Hills. 

Now, it's fairly deep. In the old days… and when I say old days, I'm talking 60 years ago, 50 years ago, 40 years ago… none of us really got a chance to go up and explore this area because there was so much ore in the Gas Hills that we didn't need to find more ore bodies. We needed to develop and mine the ones we had. 

Obviously, we know what happened in the 1980s where the whole thing just kind of fell apart. And this area never got the exploration it deserved. When Dev Randhawa, our chairman & CEO, first called me, this was the first target I gave him, and we agreed to found the new Strathmore. 

And it turns out that Terrence had actually picked up some of these claims. So we were able to hire Terrence and acquire a land position at the same time. And since then, we've acquired more land in the area, and we are very excited about Beaver Rim.

We're small. We have limited capital. We have limited personnel. And we have three properties that we are really high on. So we've got to get to Beaver Rim this summer. We couldn't get there last year as the roads were all wiped out when we tried, and we needed permit modifications in order to do it. 

That's where another, probably, two-thirds of the money that we raised will be spent on exploration at Beaver Rim. And we'll also do some reconnaissance and work up at our Night Owl property. But that's where we're going with our raise that we just did.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, listen, I think it's going to be a year of discovery. You mentioned that you didn't want to label it as a deposit yet but that you felt that by the end of summer you'd be able to. Summer comes quickly! We're in the month of March, as you know.

I’m excited to see rigs turning at what sounds like a pretty aggressive drill program to figure out what it is that you have there. Anything else to add to that, sir?

John DeJoia: Well, just that we're very optimistic. We talk almost daily. Terrence is stationed in Wyoming. The rest of us are scattered around various places. However, they had an easy winter up there but they've got snow. I know a lot of people are saying, ‘Well, geez, I just went through Casper and there's nothing!’ Well, Shirley Basin and Beaver Rim are not Casper.

Gerardo Del Real: Not Casper at all!

John DeJoia: We've got permits. We need to do a couple of little modifications because we used up some of our acreage allocation on Agate. But we think we have enough to drill a couple hundred holes this summer.

Up on Beaver Rim, we have a permit. We're going to have to do a little modification there because of some dirt work, sage-grouse issues. But we're planning to start when the sage-grouse allow us to go into the area, which is probably around August 1st.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent! Well, listen, I'm excited for it. I'm looking forward to it. You have the permits. Let's see what Mother Nature left behind. I suspect that we're going to be chatting quite often here over the summer months.

John DeJoia: I suspect we will because we already know that there are roll fronts up there. We kind of remember the locations. Actually, we know exactly what the locations are but we're going to go up there and try to verify those results and, of course, add to it.

And we're very hopeful because this was the mineralizing conduit for the whole Gas Hills. A hundred million pounds went through here. How many stayed behind? Well, just north of us, there’s one new and one old underground with high-grade, high ore reserve numbers still remaining. And they're just feet from us… it's the next land to the north.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, we're going to see what's there. And again, it can't come soon enough. Thanks again for your time today, sir.

John DeJoia: Thank you, Gerardo. It's always great talking with you.

Gerardo Del Real: Alright, cheers.

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