ATHA ENERGY IDENTIFIES HIGH-PRIORITY ELECTROMAGNETIC TARGET COINCIDENT WITH URANIUM-BEARING OUTCROP

Mining
Wednesday, January 17th, 2024 9:44 pm EDT

Atha Energy Corp. has released results from its large-scale electromagnetic (EM) surveys at its 100-per-cent-owned North Valour-East project. The project is located in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca basin, within the company’s North Rim exploration district.

Exploration outlook

Atha’s recently announced acquisition of Latitude Uranium Inc. and 92 Energy Ltd. is expected to provide the pro forma company with a newly diversified portfolio of uranium projects across the exploration risk curve on top of a strong balance sheet to sufficiently capitalize its exploration-at-scale strategy. Going forward, Atha’s exploration approach is designed with the intention of providing maximum exploration exposure by investing at scale in a large number of early-stage projects, while also seeking to deliver advanced exploration upside through the expansion of known uranium deposits and discoveries. Subject to the completion of Atha’s acquisition transactions with 92E and Latitude, Atha intends to leverage its forecasted $65-million pro forma cash position to pursue a fully financed growth strategy with focus on:

• Deposit and discovery expansion: Historical resource deposits at the Angilak deposit and CMB discoveries, as well as the GMZ corridor (host to Gemini discovery) remain underexplored and are expected to provide significant resource and discovery expansion potential on a regional scale.
• Advanced exploration: Drill-ready targets on a number of advanced projects owned by Latitude and 92E have identified uranium mineralization, with active geophysical surveys informing future exploration program decisions by Atha.
• Greenfield exploration: Pro forma land position of 7.1 million acres across some of the highest-grade uranium districts in the world provide Atha with a robust pipeline of early-stage projects that are currently undergoing geophysical and geochemical analysis.

North Valour-East highlights:

• Expert’s MobileMT and Mag survey was successfully deployed at North Valour-East, with a total of 2,569 line-kilometres flown.
• Numerous conductors with interpreted crosscutting structures were identified across the project and are related to the Black Bay fault, which hosts numerous historic uranium mines in and around Uranium City, Sask. These sympathetic faults can act as traps capable of hosting both Beaverlodge and basement styles of uranium mineralization. Additionally, 24 km of high-priority conductive lineaments have been identified within the North Valour-East project.
• Uranium mineralization has been discovered at 12 locations across the Valour project area, as well as a number of additional uranium showings that are within kilometres of North Valour and hosted within untested structures that extend on to the property. These showings have grades of up to 27 per cent U3O8 (triruanium octoxide), identified from historic surface grab samples six km to the south of North Valour, which are associated with an untested easterly striking fault that extends to North Valour.
• Analysis of the EM survey results have identified a high-priority target area that shows a magnetic low with an associated conductor, coincident with an outcrop containing high-grade uranium mineralization.
• The North Valour-East project is located four km to the west of Gulch, six km to the west of Lorado and 10 km to the west of Gunnar uranium mines.

Troy Boisjoli, chief executive officer of Atha, commented: “We are highly encouraged with the success of our maiden exploration program to date, while in the midst of further solidifying Atha’s asset portfolio as one of the most exciting in the uranium industry. Today’s news complements the transformational transaction recently announced with 92 Energy and Latitude Uranium. Upon transactions completion Atha offers substantive uranium exploration exposure across an unparalleled exploration portfolio. This comes at a time when the world is now entering what is anticipated to be an unprecedented upswing in the uranium cycle — one we feel is just the beginning.”

Greenfield exploration program

The completed survey at North Valour-East is part of the company’s maiden 2023 greenfield exploration program, which comprises a total of 17 EM surveys being conducted across Atha’s current 3.8-million-acre exploration portfolio in the Athabasca basin. To date, full results have been received and processed from five of 17 project areas, resulting in 291 km of conductive lineaments and the definition of 25 prospective targets that have now been identified across the North Rim, East Rim and Cable Bay exploration districts. The results from today’s announcement represent six of those prospective targets, coincident with uranium mineralization. Additional EM surveys on the remaining 12 projects have also been completed and are now being processed, with the anticipation of those results further defining the prospectivity of the largest exploration portfolio in the Athabasca basin. The remaining portion of the first phase of Atha’s greenfield strategy in the Athabasca basin will include the full integration of the 2023 geophysics and regional geochemistry scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2024.

Doug Adams, vice-president, exploration, added: “The results from the North Valour project reveal that modern technology provides a window into the potential that Atha projects have in the North Rim exploration district. The aggregate conductivity in the area in association with a prolific history of uranium discoveries, coupled with the limited exploration at depth, suggests that potential in the Beaverlodge mining district remains a principal exploration district 80 years after the first production. Taking into consideration the numerous surface uranium showing in the area and their affinity to known structures the focus will be to build out the structural model and to look deeper. The first step in developing that model is this EM survey. It’s an exciting time in the uranium space and the results from the MMT reveal that the globe’s oldest uranium district remains open for discovery.”

North Rim exploration program

Historic exploration at the North Rim began in the early to mid-1900s with production ending at mines located near Uranium City once the Eldorado mining and milling facility closed in the early 1980s. Uranium in the Beaverlodge mining district is structurally controlled with mineralization found in vein-filled fractures, breccias and faults. The North Rim district remains highly prospective and is vastly underexplored with modern exploration techniques. Furthermore, mining method innovation, proximity to surface and the presence of existing infrastructure contribute to the prospectivity of this district.

The North Rim district’s exploration program covers a total of 688,268 acres of 100-per-cent-Atha-owned claims using a combination of Xcite time-domain EM, Z-axis tipper EM, MMT and QMAGt survey types. The objective of the EM program is to identify prospective conductive units such as graphitic sheers and mapping of lithological contacts, which will then be targeted for further investigation. The graphitic sheers are typically formed in pelitic host rock which are known traps for uranium mineralization in the Athabasca basin.

The North Valour project comprises 14 mineral claims, totalling 63,843 hectares, located approximately 10 km and four km from former Gunnar and Gulch uranium mines, respectively. Uranium mineralization has been discovered at numerous areas throughout the property, within outcrops and boulders, as well as historic intersections at depth with diamond drilling. The project hosts complex deformation of Zemlak domain with interlayered granites and metapelites throughout the area, typical of both basement and Beaverlodge styles of uranium mineralization.

The recently completed EM surveys at North Terra, North Pinnacle projects and North Valour-East, along with the currently continuing surveys at North Valour-West, North Summit, North Beacon and North Crest, notably represent the first modern exploration work on the projects in over 50 years.

Transaction update

On Dec. 7, 2023, Atha entered into a definitive arrangement agreement with Latitude Uranium pursuant to which Atha proposes to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Latitude by way of a court-approved plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) and entered into a binding scheme of implementation deed with 92 Energy pursuant to which Atha proposes to acquire all of the issued and outstanding fully paid ordinary shares of 92E by way of a scheme of arrangement pursuant to Part 5.1 of the Australian Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). The Atha transactions with Latitude and 92E are expected to respectively close in Q1 2024 and Q2 2024.

In connection with the announced transactions, on Dec. 28, 2023, Atha completed an upsized $23.5-million private placement of charitable federal flow-through common shares ($13.1-million), charitable Saskatchewan flow-through common shares ($6.4-million) and subscription receipts ($4-million), with such subscription receipts automatically convertible for one Atha common share upon closing of the acquisition of Latitude. Upon closing of the transactions, Atha will become the holder of an unparalleled portfolio of premier uranium assets in a number of the most desirable uranium districts in the world. The portfolio includes 7.1 million acres across three jurisdictions, the high-grade GMZ discovery and the high-grade Angilak project containing a historic resource of 43.3 million pounds at 0.69 per cent U3O8.

Qualified person

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release as it relates to the claims have been reviewed and approved by Chris Brown, PGeo, a qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101 — Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Atha Energy Corp.

Atha is a mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral resource properties. Atha holds the largest cumulative exploration package in each of the Athabasca basin and Thelon basin, two of the world’s most prominent basins for uranium discoveries, with 6.1 million total acres along with a 10-per-cent carried interest portfolio of claims in the Athabasca basin operated by NexGen Energy Ltd. and Iso Energy Ltd.

We seek Safe Harbor.