In case you’re wondering, I’m still here (rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated). Life has presented numerous challenges over the past few months, but I’m still standing. You should see more content directed your way from this corner over the balance of 2024. I suspect the junior exploration arena is about to come back to life and I have a few ideas I’d like to trot out.
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Note that the following content is in collaboration with Forum Energy Metals. Highballer is compensated by the company for this effort.
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Forum Energy Metals (FMC.V)
- 294.55 million shares outstanding
- $36.81M market cap based on its recent $0.125 close
Forum has been active on multiple fronts since my last report a couple months back.
Via its Aberdeen Uranium Project in the Thelon Basin in Canada’s Nunavut Territory and an extensive project portfolio in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin, the company is looking to deliver a globally significant U3O8 discovery in a market suffering from a severe structural deficit amidst increasing demand.
As a quick review, the Thelon Basin is believed to be the closest geological analog we have to the prolific Athabasca Basin further south. Due to a lack of systematic exploration, Thelon’s discovery cycle is in its infancy—it may be where the Athabasca Basin was a half-century ago before Cigar Lake and McArthur River lit up the global U3O8 map. Forum is now poised to test that thesis having recently commenced an aggressive 10,000-meter drilling campaign at its flagship project, highlighted by this June 25 press release – Forum Commences 10,000 Metre Diamond Drilling Program on Its 100% Owned Aberdeen Uranium Project, Nunavut.
Highlights as per the guts of this release:
- Approximately 25-30 holes are planned to extend and infill known mineralization at Tatiggaq West, expand Tatiggaq Main, and/or discover additional zones to the northeast along the Tatiggaq Fault.
- The 2023 processed and modelled Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT) survey data have been used to refine and outline high-priority drill targets as we move away from the known mineralization at Tatiggaq West and Main.
- The processed ANT data on Ned has outlined the unconformity depth (Thelon Formation sandstone) as well as potential faults and alteration that will be targeted in the upcoming drilling program.
- Approximately 10 drill holes are planned to test the Ned, Bjorn and Qavvik anomalies.
Mineralization encountered to date lies within two main zones: the Tatiggaq Main and West Zones. During a modest summer-of-2023 drill program at Aberdeen, the company tagged an impressive 11.1 meters of 2.25% U3O8 at Tatiggaq Main.
Results encountered thus far indicate multiple high-grade, steep-dipping lenses, that are beginning to demonstrate significant upside along strike (the mineralization lies within a gravity anomaly that extends 1.5 kilometers x 700 meters).
The lion’s share of this year’s drilling—roughly 8,000 meters—will test the mineralized potential along the Tatiggaq fault (the red dashed line, map below). Looking to the northeast, the scale on this map helps put the target encompassing Tatiggaq Main and West in perspective—the fault runs along the entire length of the anomaly.
The remaining 2,000 meters will test high priority regional targets, specifically Qavvick, Ned, and Bjorn, highlighted on the following district-scale map.
BTW, the circled red star in the center of the above map is Orano’s Kiggavik Uranium Project, which hosts a 133 million pound resource. Forum’s ground surrounds this significant U3O8 endowment.
As noted in the June 25 press release highlights, the geological sleuths at Forum have conducted an Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT) survey over the property, which has allowed them to model the Thelon sandstone—basement contact, as well as potential zones of fault development and hydrothermal alteration.
Dr. Rebecca Hunter, Forum’s VP of Exploration on this technology, from an April 15 press release: “The ANT survey may be a game-changing geophysical method for targeting unconformity systems in the northeast Thelon Basin. By measuring the velocity change interfaces throughout our anomalies, we can potentially image the faults that host the mineralization and the location of the mineralized bodies themselves. The survey results obtained suggest we will be able to target our drilling with a much higher degree of precision than what could be done in the past.”
This ANT technology lights up images of faults and alteration—two key associations underpinning these U3O8 deposits.
Further to the south, in the prolific Athabasca Basin where Forum holds nine prospective properties, there’s activity on two fronts.
Northwest Athabasca JV
On May 30th, the company dropped the following headline concerning its Northwest Athabasca JV – Forum Enters into Option Agreement with Global Uranium for $20 Million to Earn 75% of Forum’s Interest in the Northwest Athabasca Joint Venture.
As it currently stands, the ownership split on the Northwest Athabasca JV is Forum 43.3%, NexGen 26.3%, Cameco 18.7%, and Orano 11.7%.
This JV includes the Maurice Bay deposit, which was discovered in 1976. It contains a historical resource estimate of 1.5 million pounds grading 0.6% U3O8 to a depth of 50 meters (Saskatchewan Industry and Resources, Miscellaneous Report 2003-7).
“A joint venture within a joint venture”
According to this press release, Global has a right to acquire 51% of Forum’s interest by:
- making staged payments to the Company totalling $225,000 by December 31, 2027;
- making staged issuances to the Company of a total of 1,000,000 shares of Global by December 31, 2027; and
- making staged payments to the Company equal to the amounts the Company would be entitled to contribute for exploration under the Northwest Athabasca Joint Venture on account of the 2025-2028 operating years totalling a minimum of $3,900,000 and up to a maximum of $9,000,000 to be applied to the corresponding cash calls, depending on the participation of the minority partners in the Northwest Athabasca Joint Venture in any approved exploration program.
In the short to medium term, Global can earn 51% of Forum’s interest in the project by spending $9M. After Global spends $9M, assuming the other JV partners decide not to participate and contribute exploration funds to advance the project, Forum will be left with an approximate 20% stake. The more Global spends beyond its first $9M milestone, the more Forum’s stake will increase.
With Global’s 2025 spending commitment pegged at $3M, we’ll see a drill campaign commence in early 2025. Forum has multiple targets teed up at Northwest Athabasca, three of which will see a proper probe with the drill bit (Spring Bay, a sizeable gravity anomaly, is at the top of the list).
From the Northwest Athabasca project page:
Over 20 untested gravity and structural targets with EM conductors are present, along with several radioactive boulder trains with no identified source. The shallow sandstone cover and existing widespread mineralization grading up to 5.7% uranium over 8.5m continue to make this a highly prospective project. Forum has prepared a budget for a 2025 exploration program, which includes 4,000m of drilling. The proposed program is subject to approval by the participating JV partners.
Grease River
On June 12, the company released the following piece of news concerning its Grease River Project located along the north rim of the Athabasca Basin – Forum Energy Metals and Traction Uranium Commence Airborne MobileMT Survey on the Grease River Project, Athabasca Basin.
Traction stands to earn up to 100% of the project by making staged cash payments of $1.7 million, 5.5 million in staged share payments, and incurring $6 million in exploration expenditures by December 31, 2028. If the deal runs its course, Forum will retain a 2% NSR and pull in an additional $8 million in milestone payments (Forum serves as operator for this first phase of exploration).
Here, the companies have commenced a helicopter-borne MobileMT (Mobile MagnetoTellurics) survey, the results from which will help advance the project further along the exploration curve.
This additional airborne geophysical survey will help resolve conductors and fault zones to a greater depth for future drill targeting that were not easily imaged by the Xcite™ Time Domain Electromagnetic System flown in 2023 (see New Releases dated May 10, June 28, and November 2, 2023). In particular, a shallow conductive layer in the Athabasca sandstone masked the electromagnetic signal at depth on the western block so this survey aims at penetrating it and resolving the basement structures to a greater degree. The high-resolution magnetic data is also important to highlight important fault zones or corridors that could host uranium mineralization.
This airborne survey is likely to be followed up with some ground geophysics to help define drill targets.
Between the Aberdeen drill campaign this summer and the NWT JV drilling slated to commence early in the new year, strong newsflow can be expected throughout the rest of this year and into next.
For greater insight, the following is a very recent interview with CEO Rick Mazur and VP of Exploration Dr. Rebecca Hunter:
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– Greg Nolan
Full disclosure: The author is biased in his views as Forum Energy Metals is a client company. The author owns shares.
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