Labrador Uranium (LUR) - Big, Shallow Drilling, Economic and Canadian

Labrador Uranium Inc. is a Canadian junior exploration and development company focused on the advancement of its projects located in the region of Labrador, Canada. The company’s asset portfolio consists of its CMB project which is located in the central mineral belt of Labrador and hosts the Moran Lake deposit and Mustang Lake deposit. The CMB project holds a land position of approximately 139,000 hectares. The Notakwanon project of the company hosts near-surface uranium and has shown grab samples of up to 3.5% U308.

Labrador Uranium Inc. announced at the end of April 2022, that it had concluded with a bought deal private placement offering, which consisted of the issuing of 7,144,000 flow-through units of the company at CAD$ 1.40 for the gross proceeds of CAD$ 10 million towards the company.  

The company announced on the 14th of June 2022, that it had undertaken the major exploration agreements and received the permits necessary for its 2022 summer exploration program at the CMB project. The company announced on the 18 of June 2022, that it had commenced with its 2022 summer exploration program. The company further announced that the drilling will commence at the Moran Lake deposit initially and will be aimed to delineate a current mineral resource estimate based on historical data. Labrador Uranium Inc. further plans additional exploration work including bedrock mapping, sampling and ground radiometric surveying which will be implemented in a machine learning process, from which the targets will be advanced towards drilling through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives.

Company history

Labrador Uranium Inc. was formed on the 18th of October 2021 as a spin-out of Consolidated Uranium Inc. The company previously served as a majority-controlled subsidiary of Consolidated Uranium Inc. which focused on the consolidation, exploration and development of uranium projects in the region of Canada.

Labrador Uranium Inc. concluded with the spin-out from Consolidated Uranium Inc. through a fully marketed private placement offering. The private placement offering consisted of the sale of approximately 11.4 million subscription receipts of Labrador Uranium Inc. for the gross proceeds of CAD$ 8 million to the company. A subscription receipt entitles the holder thereof to automatically receive, upon satisfaction of certain escrow release conditions one unit of the company. A unit consists of one common share of Labrador Uranium Inc. as well as one-half of one common share purchase warrant of the company. A purchase warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one common share of the company at CAD$ 1.05 for a period of 24 months following the escrow release date.

The company raised a further CAD$ 10 million through a bought deal private placement offering in April 2022. The bought deal private placement offering consisted of the issuing of approximately 7.1 million flow-through units of the company. Each unit consisted of one flow-through share of Labrador Uranium Inc. as well as one-half of one common share purchase warrant. A purchase warrant entitles the holder to purchase one non-flow-through common share of the company at CAD$ 1.40 at any time on or before April 28, 2024.

Labrador Uranium Inc. boasts strong strategic investors such as Altius Minerals Corp., Consolidated Uranium Inc. and Mega Uranium Ltd. as well as an experienced management and technical team as well as board of directors.

Management

The company is led by Stephen Keith, who serves as the CEO of Labrador Uranium Inc. Keith is an experienced engineer, investment banker and executive with over 20 years of experience in the natural resources industry. He has been involved in mergers and acquisitions as well as the financing of projects in over 20 countries with a total monetary value of more than USD$ 2 billion.

Greg Duras serves as the company’s CFO and has more than 23 years of experience in corporate development, financial management and cost control positions in the resource sector. He holds a Bachelor of Administration degree from Lakehead University and completed his Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) designation in 1998.

Paul Pearson and Matt Melnyk serve as advisors to the company and have together more than half a century’s experience in exploration. Pearson is a specialist structural and economic geologist with extensive exploration experience in Iron Oxide Copper-Gold (IOCG) deposits. Melnyk has been involved with projects throughout the Americas, Australia and Africa and previously served as the Manager of Project Evaluations for Agnico Eagle’s Southern Business Unit.

Mike McNeil serves as the company’s Operations Manager and has more than a decade’s experience in the management and planning of large-scale exploration programs. He has been involved in exploration initiatives in the central mineral belt of Labrador since 2008. Nancy Normore and Drew Heasman round out the company’s technical team as Director of Exploration and Director of GeoData respectively. Normore has more than 18 years of exploration experience and led the team of UEX Corp. that discovered the Ōrora uranium deposit. Heasman has over 15 years of experience as a geologist and focuses on the implementation of machine learning and AI to develop priority exploration targets.

The board of directors of the company includes Philip Williams, Richard Patricio, Justin Reid and Brigitte Berneche. The experienced board of directors, management and technical teams are tasked with advancing the company’s asset portfolio in Labrador, Canada.

Projects

The asset portfolio of Labrador Uranium Inc. consists of the Central Mineral Belt (CMB) project and the Notakwanon project. The CMB project of the company is a 139,000-hectare land package, which hosts the Moran Lake and Mustang deposits. The project hosts several uranium prospects with a large number of historical exploration initiatives conducted in the past.  Labrador Uranium Inc. has identified 140 targets set for further exploration with it currently underway with a 4,000 m exploration drilling program at the project.

The Moran Lake deposit hosts both uranium and vanadium and has a historical NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate of 5.2 million pounds of U3O8 and 42.8 million pounds of vanadium in the indicated category as well as 4.4 million pounds of U3O8 and 93.6 million pounds of vanadium in the inferred category.

The Mustang Lake deposit hosts three main prospects, namely the Mustang Lake, Irving Zone and Mustang Lake North. The deposit also shows the potential for Iron-Oxide Copper and Gold (IOCG) style mineralisation, with previous exploration drilling intercepting mineralisation at 0.12% U3O8 over an interval of 9.11 m.

The Notakwanon project of the company is located in northern Labrador and has shown mineralisation of up to 3.49% U3O8 in previously conducted grab samples.

First Nations

The company’s CMB project hosts two first nations, namely the Inuit and the Innu groups. The Inuit first nation has an independent government, namely the Nunavut Tunngavik Government. The Innuit first nation also has its own permitting process, away from that of the country. Stephen Keith explains the process and collaboration of the company with the first nation as follows:

“…the Inuit, [who] have their own self-government, the Nunavut Tunngavik Government. They actually have a process now for permitting an application. When we got our permits to drill and build the field camp, they had to approve those, and we went through them. We worked quite well and quite closely with the Inuit and we will continue to.”

The Innu first nation is creating, developing and refining its self-government with Keith explaining the company’s approach to the first nation as follows:

“The Innu right now are working on their own self-government, and in so doing, they are not particularly keen on seeing a lot of people come in and do a lot of work until they've established their government and their self-government. Therefore, our decision was, as we started to put in applications, we found that they really just wanted us to focus on working with the government of Newfoundland on their work. We thought, let's let that happen.”

2022 exploration program agreements and permits

Labrador Uranium Inc. announced on the 14th of June 2022, that it had received the exploration agreements and permits necessary for its 2022 exploration program at its Central Mineral Belt properties. The agreements entered regarding the exploration program included the undertaking of the camp construction and rental agreement with Innu Cartwright Drilling L.P., a partnership of the Innu first nation as well as the undertaking of a contract for the drilling of a minimum of 4,000 m by Innu Cartwright Drilling L.P. The further agreements undertaken by the company include a fixed wing and helicopter services agreement with Air Borealis, an Innu Nation, Nunatsiavut and Provincial Airlines Partnership, a fuel and fuel storage contract with Air Borealis and C3 Fuels and a line cutting contract with Titjaluk Logistics, a Nunatsiavut beneficiary owned and operated company.

The obtained permits by the company included the approval to construct a helicopter-supported field camp and fuel cache as well as the approval to conduct line-cutting and ground geophysical surveys and prospecting. The company also obtained the permits for a 4,000 m exploration drilling program as well as the approval to conduct geochemical analysis, ground mag and gravity, prospecting, and line-cutting surveys from the Nunatsiavut Government Department of Lands and Natural Resources.

2022 exploration program commencement

Labrador Uranium Inc. announced on the 18th of July 2022 that it had commenced with its fully permitted 4,000 m exploration drilling program at its CMB project. The inaugural budget of the exploration program is set at CAD$ 5.5 million with drilling initially commencing at the Moran Lake deposit. The exploration drilling aims to delineate the deposit’s current mineral resource estimate, which is based on historical data. The exploration drilling will also aim to extend the mineralization downdip in the southern area of the mineralized zone.

The exploration program will include bedrock mapping, sampling, ground radiometric surveying, and trenching as required at three additional targets of the project. The results of the exploration work will be implemented in a machine learning process, from which the targets will be prioritised through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives.

Future

Labrador Uranium Inc. will continue to develop its machine learning and AI program on an ongoing basis in the coming year. The company will aim to permanently incorporate the iterative assessment tool to facilitate the identification of priority target areas in the future. The company will further aim to update the mineral resource estimate of the Moran Lake deposit and the CMB project as well as evaluate the project’s historic resources and determine its potential for expansion.

The company will aim to report the results from the exploration drilling as soon as possible, dependent on the relevant assay laboratories which are experiencing delays in the reporting of assay results. Labrador Uranium Inc. will aim to release information regarding the intercepted mineralisation, the growth of targets and the identification of new targets obtained from its current exploration initiatives as far as possible in the following months.

To find out more, go to the Labrador Uranium website