Part Three: To Invest in Sweden's Uranium Exploration or Not?
By: James Finch | Posted: 17th July 2006
Increased Uranium Exploration Activity
At this time, uranium mining is banned in Sweden. Will that soon change? In November 2005, Platts carried a news item that the world's second largest uranium producer Cogema, a subsidiary of Areva, was spending about 1.7 million euros on prospecting in Sweden. The industry giant announced plans to narrow down mining sites, after its initial prospecting. Krister Soederholm, chief inspector of mining at the Ministry of Trade & Industry, told Platts that Sweden would respond positively if Cogema's activity "would be of significant benefit to the country." Conscientious Sweden is still reeling from a recent media expose showing that the country now imports a large portion of its uranium from Kazakhstan, where mining conditions are reportedly abysmal.
On July 11th, one Canadian-traded uranium development company announced its NI 43-101 resource for three of its uranium properties in Sweden. We spoke with Michael Hudson, Chief Executive of Mawson Resources (TSX: MAW; Frankfurt: MRY), about the company's prospects. First, he explained that Sweden hasn't had any uranium drilling since about 1984 or 1985. "It's the only part of the nuclear cycle the Swedes are missing out on," Hudson told us. He hopes to bring uranium mining back to Sweden.
Mawson has focused its exploration/development efforts in the northerly provinces. "Those are mining districts," said Hudson. "People are comfortable with mining in that part of the world." In the past three years, three new mines have been opened. Despite the latitude, Hudson explained, "Mines up there are running all year around." On that basis, Hudson began negotiating for uranium properties in late 2003, before the uranium bull market had gained traction. He began acquiring properties, previously drilled by the Swedish government at a cost of $46 million in 1970s dollars.
The company plans further exploration on three of its eight uranium properties. Upon announcing that the National Instrument 43-101 confirmed the company's uranium resources in Sweden, the same announcement confirmed the magnitude of the exploration target on its largest property, Tasjo. According to the company's website, "83 drill holes have been drilled… over an area of approximately 10 kilometres by 20 kilometres." It's a vast target, between seven and ten kilometers, to explore. Hudson said, "We're going to put a few thousand meters into that in September or October." The company plans to spend about C$2 million of its C$9 million further exploring its properties over the next 12 to 18 months.
Previous government exploration at Tasjo wasn't as structured as many of today's mining companies would like. "A lot of it (the tonnage) hasn't been counted," Hudson told us. "We went through the data in cardboard boxes. The data hadn't been out of the boxes since the mid 1970s, and the last drilling was done in the 1980s." Hudson said his team plans to set up a grid and methodically drill it out, as opposed to how it was drilled before. The prize could be enormous as some historical estimates ran as high as 116 million pounds of U3O8 at Tasjo. But, those figures require modern exploration for regulatory compliant verification. Hudson emphasized, "Because of how the work was done, we're not happy to quote those resources."
While the drilling may have been less methodical, Hudson praises the Swedes for their storage capabilities, "The Swedes claim they've got the largest core yard in the world." For the past seven years, Hudson rented a house in Sweden in the same town where the core shack is located. "This is all professionally stored in huge warehouses, all recorded and registered," he explained. "At your request, they will pull out the core with forklifts." According to Hudson, the data is all there, about 98 percent (or more) of the drill databases, including the assays and surveys. "We've got the data, and our people are scanning and inputting the data," he added.
We talked about the other uranium properties, some of the better of which could have as much as 30 million pounds of uranium oxide. "The better project, from a short-term perspective is Klappibacken," Hudson noted. Historical estimated were compiled by the Swedish Geological Survey (SGU) in 1984, when the property was last explored. Thirty-two drill holes were completed in an area about the size of a football field. The recent Canadian regulatory approved report showed an indicated resource of about two million pounds. This was considered to be a minimum because uranium mineralization was still open laterally and at depth. Hudson was excited about the Klappibacken property, "It's over $100 per ton in uranium value. It's wide and thick from surface. We're trying to get something up to prefeasibility."
The Duobblon property confirmed previous SGU drilling of fifty-five holes, which was done between 1976 and 1979. The most promising of that drilling may be the central zone, where thirty-five holes were drilled over a strike length of one kilometer. Another four kilometers, of what Mawson believes may be the host resource, remains undrilled. This may be a near-surface opportunity, possibly for open pit mining. Uranium mineralization extends from three meters below the surface to at least 300 meters of vertical depth.
We barely discussed the Flistjarn project during our phone conversation, except in passing. This may be an area where Mawson may find an Athabasca-style deposit, based upon how the company interprets the vein and unconformity-related mineralization hosted by a block of Paleozoic sediments thrust over Precambrian volcanoes. First explored by the SGU in 1977 as a way to determine if Sweden could be uranium-independent, it was financed by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel Supply Company, SKBF. Mawson released results of grab and channel samples in December 2005.
According to Hudson, some of the samples have run up to 20 percent uranium. "Getting these shipped out of Sweden is a challenge, especially with the high grade ones," he told us. "We have to wrap them in lots of lead, so a few kilos of rock become 40 kilos of lead-covered boxes." Nothing has been released on Flistjarn since the values were announced, and the property was not mentioned in the recent NI 43-101 announcement.
James Finch contributes to StockInterview.com and other publications. Visit http://www.stockinterview.com to download your free copy of "Investing in the Great Uranium Bull Market: A Practical Investor's Guide to Uranium Stocks." You can always write to James Finch at jfinch@stockinterview.com
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James Finch is a contributing editor for StockInterview.com and other publications. http://www.stockinterview.com
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