Overview

The Company holds 23 properties, totaling of 1117 unpatented mineral claims (“claims”), plus 3 Utah State mineral leases, covering 25,099 acres, or 100.42 square kilometers (km2). The claims are situated within the Colorado Plateau geological region within the states of Utah and Colorado. Fourteen of these properties have a history of production, with over two dozen former mine portals and shafts among them.  All of the properties have known uranium mineralization and are in five major mining districts as follows: the Uravan District (Montrose and San Miguel counties, Colorado); the La Sal, La Sal Creek, and Lisbon Valley Districts (San Juan county, Utah); and the San Rafael River District (Emery county, Utah).

Highlights

  • Each of the 23 Properties are located in areas geologically favorable for sandstone-hosted uranium deposits, targeting formations known for significant uranium mineralization and historic production.
  • The I-70 Uranium Project, 15 miles west of Green River, Utah is a highly prospective uranium asset with an existing underground mining permit and surface use permit.
  • Most project sites host existing underground mine workings and historical estimated uranium resources.
  • Properties have been selected based on proximity to historically productive mines, allowing the Company to leverage past production data and reports to effectively prioritize exploration.
  • The Company maintains strong working relationships with local property vendors and regulators, ensuring access to expertise in regional geology, permitting processes, drilling techniques, and underground mining operations.
  • The majority of properties are accessible year-round via established road networks and are located near local communities and support infrastructure, facilitating cost-effective exploration and operations.
  • Exploration and evaluation of the properties have begun with detailed geological analysis and digitization of historical data. Confirmation drilling will focus on areas identified as having the greatest potential based on historic information.
  • NI 43-101 Technical Reports will be developed where sufficient historical and exploration data support resource estimation.

Building Urano’s Uranium and Vanadium Mineral Inventory Without Drilling Costs

Atlas Corp., Cotter Corp., Homestake Minerals and Umetco Corp. prepared the historical reserve and resource estimates reported here. All companies, except Homestake operated their own processing plant (mill) and produced ores from a large number of operating mines located in the Utah-Colorado region. While each company had its own resource classification system and terminology, both systems were related to terms adopted by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Mines (Geological Survey Bull. 1450-A, 1976), and U.S.G.S. 1980, Circular 831, “Principles of a Resource/Reserve Classification For Minerals”. 

The initial evaluation of the I-70 Uranium Project in Emery County, Utah, based on detailed historical data from Atlas Corp1., confirms a significant historical uranium inventory and identifies multiple high-priority areas for follow-up exploration. The conversion of the historical resource estimates to a current mineral resource under NI 43-101 for each property will require additional data review and analysis, and if necessary additional confirmatory exploration work. As part of its ongoing analysis and review of each of its uranium-vanadium properties, Urano Energy will prioritize the Properties for completion of NI 43-101 Technical Reports.   

Urano Energy’s documented 4.5 million cumulative pounds of uranium (“U3O8”) historical reserve inventory comes from over half of the projects. This is only the beginning of building Urano’s portfolio of properties with historical reserves and resources. The size of the reserve and resource inventory is expected to substantially increase as the work of reviewing and analyzing the large database associated with all Urano’s properties.

Uranium Mining in Utah and Colorado

Uranium mining in Utah and Colorado has a significant history, closely tied to the discovery of rich uranium mineral deposits in Colorado’s southwestern region and contiguous southeastern Utah. The Uravan Mining District of Colorado and Utah hosts the Uravan Mineral Belt, a 70-mile (110km) zone of uranium-vanadium deposits in San Miguel, Montrose, and Mesa counties, Colorado, and Grand County, Utah with a history of 80 million pounds of uranium oxide (U3O8) production and over 400 million pounds of vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) production since 1945.  The uranium and vanadium production has come from the Colorado Plateau type uranium/vanadium deposits, hosted by sandstones of the Upper-Jurassic Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation.

Today, the Uravan Mineral Belt remains a key area for uranium exploration, with modern mining techniques targeting its widely distributed deposits to meet the new opportunities for production as global demand for uranium continues to grow. The region’s rich history of uranium mining has established Utah and Colorado as long-standing and significant players in the global nuclear energy sector.  In addition to Colorado’s Uravan Belt, Utah has produced uranium-vanadium from its San Rafael River, as well as the La Sal, La Sal Creek, and Lisbon Valley Mining Districts.

Qualified Person

Technical information on this webpage has been approved by Douglas Underhill, PhD. Geology, MBA, CPG, a Director of Urano Energy Corp. and “Qualified Person” as defined by National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. 

References

1 Historical estimates were prepared for Atlas Corp. using the classification categories indicated reserves and inferred reserves consistent with 1976 USGS principles of classification applicable at that time. The above historical estimates were not prepared using the current definitions of “mineral reserve” and “mineral resource” as those terms are used in National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”) and defined under current CIM standards. The historical estimate is considered reliable and is relevant for the purpose of conducting data analysis and future exploration on the Properties. Additional review and analysis of the available data, and if necessary additional exploration work, including confirmatory drilling and sampling, is required to verify and upgrade the historical estimates as a current mineral resource or mineral reserve. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. The Company is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. No specific analyses of V2O5 are available for Company’s Green River deposits, as at the time of reserve estimation, Atlas Corp. considered the concentration of vanadium to be too low for economic production. However, references to Indicated and Inferred Ore are considered similar to indicated and inferred mineral resources.