Technology: Geochemistry/Geochemical Analysis – Saskatchewan impacts

Fission Uranium Corporation is a Canadian-based resource company focused on the exploration and development of their Patterson Lake South property. Operating in northern Saskatchewan on the edge of the Athabasca Basin, Fission is the 100 per cent owner of the Patterson Lake South property. Fission and the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) have worked together since 2007 when the company was created.

“SRC has been our main go-to laboratory and specifically on the Patterson Lake project since we started drilling quite intensely two years ago,” says Ross McElroy, president and chief operating officer at Fission. “We’ve been using SRC to do all of our uranium assays as well as the 63-element ICP package – so our full geochemistry and geochemical analysis is being done through SRC. We’ve used the Minerals team as well to start getting some metallurgical recovery testing. SRC is our main go-to lab at this point.”

Investors and fund managers rely on the chemical assay results to confirm resource estimates for the property. “We depend very much on the values that we get back from the lab for being able to raise money,” says McElroy.

“SRC has been our main go-to laboratory and specifically on the Patterson Lake project since we started drilling quite intensely two years ago.”
Ross McElroy, President and COO,Fission Uranium Corp.

Fission has recently expanded their drilling program to grow the resource and find new zones. In 2014, they spent $28 million in exploration at the Patterson Lake property. “SRC is a big part of that budget… likely 20 per cent of our budget expenditures are going to assaying and that kind of work.”

All of the work is happening in Saskatchewan. Approximately 80 people are working on the project and four diamond drills were running at one point. Fission is well-funded at the moment and is focused on continuing to expand the footprint of the resource. “The challenges are to continue to find more to turn this into an economically viable project and to continue on our way and make new discoveries,” he adds.

“Already with the resource we’ve outlined a deposit that is now the third largest in the Athabasca Basin area behind McArthur River which is the world’s biggest high-grade deposit and Cigar Lake so third in line is Patterson Lake,” he adds.

In the last two years, Fission has been widely recognized by industry peers. McElroy was awarded the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada 2014 Bill Dennis Award for an important Canadian discovery and prospecting success and McElroy alongside Fission CEO, Dev Randhawa were named finalists in the 2014 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. In 2013, McElroy and Randhawa were named 2013 Mining Persons of the Year by The Northern Miner.

McElroy is very aware of the cyclical nature of the exploration industry. “To launch into a project like this during – we’ll just call it a difficult time in the industry – is pretty rewarding and exciting. We’ve been able to keep people employed that may not be. Fission is one of the busiest companies out there so people have employment opportunities that they might not normally have.”

I have reviewed this document and release its content to the Saskatchewan Research Council for the purpose of impact reporting.

Ross McElroy,
President and COO Fission Uranium Corp.