Uranium Energy Corp (NYSE AMEX: UEC) has announced the start of drilling at the Company's 100%-controlled Salvo Project in Bee County, Texas.
The objective of the current drilling program is to verify the historic resource and to expand on the resource by drilling new areas of mineralization. The exploration drill plan will consist of two phases, each utilizing two rigs.
Phase One will consist of approximately 50 holes, plus 5 core holes, which the Company expects, with favourable results, will culminate in an updated NI 43-101 resource estimate being available during the first quarter of 2011. First drilling started two days ago.
Phase Two will build upon the Phase One results, and include an additional 140 holes, with an estimated completion date during the second quarter of 2011. Following Phase Two drilling, the Company expects, again with favourable results, that an updated NI 43-101 resource estimate will be available by mid-2011.
The Salvo project consists of 1,513 acres of continuous leases located about ten miles southwest of Beeville, Texas. The Salvo lease is approximately 50 miles from the Company's Hobson processing facility. Management anticipates that any mineral resource identified at Salvo will be extracted using in-situ recovery (ISR) methods and processed at the Hobson plant.
The Company earlier announced (see release dated July 19, 2010) an independent NI 43-101-compliant historic resource of 1,505,000 pounds of U3O8 based on 314 drill holes performed in the 1980s by Mobil Oil and Uranium Resources Inc. The historical resource estimate was performed using industry-accepted standards for its time. The Company is not treating the historical estimates as current mineral resources and the historical estimates should not be relied upon.
Clyde Yancey, VP of Exploration, said, "We are excited to get on the ground at Salvo and to verify and expand on the prospective resource here. First, historic disequilibrium factors (DEF), which were not applied to the historic resource, indicate a potential expansion by one-half or more. We will verify historic average DEF calculations and increase our understanding here. We also plan to drill prospective new zones aggressively."
The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in NI 43-101 and reviewed by Andrew Kurrus, P.G., Chief Geologist, Texas for the Company, a QP under NI 43-101.
Source: Uranium Energy Corp