Laramide Resources (TSX:LAM) has announced the results from its 2023 drilling campaign at the Westmoreland Uranium Project in northwest Queensland, Australia. Laramide completed over 4,000 meters of diamond drilling across 40 holes at four target areas named Amphitheatre, Long Pocket, Black Hills and Huarabagoo. Assay results were recently received for the Long Pocket and Black Hills areas after extended delays at the analytical laboratories.

Laramide’s President and CEO Marc Henderson commented in a press release: “We are pleased to have received more positive results from our 2023 drilling campaign at Westmoreland, which was completed in October. The results are highly encouraging because they lend confidence that the Westmoreland Project has the potential to expand the uranium mineralisation with satellite deposits additional to the known 51.9Mlb Mineral Resources. The consistency of today’s results supports our plans to begin modelling a maiden resource at the Long Pocket area in 2024. This ‘Long Pocket area’ includes Black Hills to the north and the newly discovered U-Valley to the south. The latest results include significant grade from Black Hills which warrants further investigation and will be a priority for the 2024 field season. The 2024 exploration plans include validation and qualification of historical work, completed in the 1970s by Rio Tinto’s predecessors.”

The objective of this drilling was to explore potential extensions of known uranium mineralization at Long Pocket ahead of Laramide’s plans to establish a maiden mineral resource estimate for the area in 2024. Additional holes investigated potential extensions of mineralization towards the Black Hills uranium prospect located 1.5 km northeast of Long Pocket. Historical exploration in these areas was conducted by companies including QML, Rio Tinto and Laramide.

At the Black Hills prospect, Laramide discovered multiple new zones of uranium mineralization from previously undrilled areas at the southern end of the broad, 1.5 by 1.0 km east-west trending airborne radiometric anomaly.

The 15 exploration holes at Long Pocket tested for northerly and northeasterly extensions to the flat-lying uranium mineralization. Results from drill holes LP23DD-002, -008 and -011 presented step outs of over 100 meters from known shallow mineralization. Holes LP23DD-006 and -015 suggest the potential for a mineralized corridor towards the Black Hills prospect which requires further investigation.

Reconnaissance sampling earlier in 2023 at Laramide’s U-Valley prospect returned significant rock chip assays up to 1.49% U3O8 over two sub-parallel, approximately 200-meter-long east-west trending zones. While grab samples are discrete point data, the outcropping uranium mineralization will be a priority target for follow-up work in 2024.

The above references an opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a licensed professional for investment advice. The author is not an insider or shareholder of any of the companies mentioned above.