TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Uranium explorer Fission Uranium and joint venture partner Alpha Minerals on Monday announced that they had confirmed the existence of a fourth mineralised zone at the companies’ flagship Patterson Lake South (PLS) property, on the western side of Canada's Athabasca basin, with some of the results being ‘off-scale’.

Fission, which in August launched a takeover offer to buy Alpha for $185-million in stock to consolidate its ownership in the project, said results from two more holes drilled on the R945E zone, PLS13-092 and PLS13-096, returned significant results.

Of particular interest was PLS13-096, which returned 103.5 m of total composite mineralisation, including 9.92 m of total composite scintillometer readings that were off the scale, or greater than 9999 counts per second (cps), recorded within several intervals and a discrete 3.19 m of continuous off-scale readings. The mineralisation occured between 94 m and 317.5 m below the surface.

A scintillometer, or Geiger counter, reads radioactivity levels and a count above 9999 cps could translate to management reporting assay results in percentages, as opposed to parts per million. However, scintillometer readings, like down-hole gamma probe readings, are not directly or uniformly related to uranium grades within measured rock samples, and are used only as a preliminary indication of the presence of radioactive materials.

Fission said these were the widest continuous and strongest results encountered thus far at the zone. The company, which is also the operator of the 31 039 ha PLS project, said it had now hit significant off-scale mineralisation at all four zones of the project.

"This summer's drilling programme continues to deliver on-strike and with these latest results we will potentially see our high-grade strike length increase from 400 m to more than 1 km,” COO and chief geologist Ross McElroy said in a statement.

A $6.95-million, 11 000 m drill programme and ground geophysics surveys continue at PLS.

The PLS project is accessible by road with the main access from the all-weather Highway 955, which runs north to the former Cluff Lake mine, and passes through the nearby UEX-Areva Shea Creek discoveries located 50 km to the north, currently also under active exploration and development.