Mega Commences Drill Program On Northwest Athabasca Property
January 23, 20124,000 metre drill program to test fifteen discrete targets defined by gravity and electromagnetic surveys, gravity survey to continue.Drill targets include unconformity type and basement hosted mineralization, both of which currently exist on the projectProperty hosts the 1.5 million pound Maurice Bay uranium deposit
TORONTO, Ontario (January 23, 2012) - Mega Uranium Ltd. (TSX:MGA) ("Mega") and Forum Uranium Corp. (FDC: TSX-V) ("Forum") announce commencement of a 4,000 metre, 16 hole drill program on the Northwest Athabasca property. Eight high priority targets were defined from a gravity survey completed by Mega and Forum in 2011, and are augmented by an additional seven untested targets from electromagnetic surveys completed by Cameco Corporation ("Cameco") in the period 2005 to 2007. The first drill targets to be tested will be in the area of the Maurice Bay deposit (historical resource* of 1.5 million pounds uranium grading 0.6% U3O8). Of particular interest is Zone 2A, which previously returned grades of up to 5.68% U3O8 over 8.5 metres, indicative of high grade Athabasca unconformity-style mineralization. Another attractive aspect of this property is that the target depths of the unconformity are shallow, ranging from 0 to 200 metres.
The project is located in the western Athabasca Basin where significant deposits are located, such as UEX's Shea Creek deposit hosting 88 million pounds uranium grading 1.4% U3O8 (Indicated and Inferred Resource, UEX website) and Areva's decommissioned Cluff Lake mine which produced 62.5 million pounds of uranium (Cameco website).
Prior work on the Northwest Athabasca project was completed in the late-1970s and early-1980s and concentrated on areas with surface expressions of radioactivity. Recent advances in geophysical techniques and modern theories of unconformity-style uranium deposition are only now being applied to this property.
Mega and Forum have entered into a 50/50 Joint Venture Agreement to manage the exploration program during the earn-in period with Forum as initial operator. Mega and Forum can earn a 60% interest from Cameco on the Northwest Athabasca project by completing $4 million in exploration over four years and making cash payments of $400,000 over three years, of which $60,000 has been paid.
Michael Downes Ph.D., P.Geo., Vice President North America and Qualified Person for Mega, has reviewed the technical content of this news release.
Figure 1: Filtered Bouguer Gravity on the NW Athabasca Project. Gravity lows are in dark blue, drill target areas are circled. The black dots show the location of existing drill holes. Most of the gravity lows have not been drill tested. The light blue colour is Lake Athabasca. The 2012 gravity survey will cover the remaining areas on the east and north sides of the project.
*Historical resource for the Maurice Bay deposit, as reported by Saskatchewan Industry and Resources, Miscellaneous Report 2003-7, has not been calculated or classified under the specifications of National Instrument 43-101 and should not be relied upon.
ABOUT MEGA URANIUMMega Uranium Ltd. is a Toronto-based mineral resources company with a focus on uranium properties in Australia, Canada and Cameroon. Further information on Mega can be found on the company's website at www.megauranium.com. Mega Uranium's Ben Lomond and Maureen properties in Queensland, Australia are subject to a state policy which presently prohibits the mining of uranium.
For further information, please contact:Investor RelationsMega Uranium Ltd. Richard PatricioEVP Corporate AffairsT: (416) 643-7630info@megauranium.comwww.megauranium.com
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