Project Highlights

• Historic United States Bureau of Mines *Resource Evaluation – 11.8 million pounds of insitu U3O8 plus large Rare Earth Element (REE), Y2O3 and ZrO2.

• Situated In An Area Set Aside For Resource Development– The Bokan area is situated within the Tongass National Forest(TNF), an area set aside within Alaska by federal legislation for the  purpose  of mining activities, forestry activities, and the extracting and sustaining of natural resources.The TNF is operated by the US National Forest Service, with a specific mandate of advancing sustainable resource development.

 • No Indigenous or Non Indigenous Populations - No private individuals are permitted to live within the district of the Tongass National Forest in which the Bokan project is located. There are no indigenous populations located within this area, and no jurisdictional land rights other than those permitted and supervised by the National Forest Service (NFS).

• Past U3O8 Production – The Ross-Adams mine, with reported production of 1.3 million pounds at .76% U3O8 from open pit and underground operations, is Alaska’s only past-producing uranium property. The deposit is interpreted by Ucore to remain open at depth.

• Potential For Near Term Production - The Ross Adams Mine has the potential for near term reactivation of mining production. The deposit is open at depth and along strike, with extensive mine infrastructure intact and amenable to new development.This infrastructure includes an intact and permitted broad-area surface road system, two accessible underground mine haulage levels, existing site accommodations and docking facilities, as well as close proximity to barge-accessible tidewater at West Arm Kendrick Bay.

• Historical Database - The project features an extensive historical database relative to mine workings, minerology, prior drill intercept documentation, and mapping. Substantial amounts of published research by government and academic interests apply to the area. Ucore has accessed an extensive private collection of pertinent historic exploration data through terms of various mineral property option agreements. The project also benefits from technical support of several prominent local mining exploration interests with long-standing exploration knowledge of the district. 

• Extensive Exploration Holdings – Through staking and option agreements Ucore has acquired exploration rights to approximately 20 square kilometers of highly prospective ground at Bokan Mountain, Southeast Alaska, including past producing Ross-Adams Mine property. 
  

• Existing U3O8 Prospects – More than 20 previously defined U3O8 bearing prospects, some with substantial amounts of drilling defined mineralization exist within the Ucore holdings. These collectively present an excellent starting point for both exploration and deposit delineation programs by Ucore.

• Potential for New Discoveries – The large land holding established by Ucore has not been thoroughly explored using modern exploration techniques and the company feels that excellent opportunities exist for discovery of new U3O8, REE, Y2O3 and ZrO2 deposits in the area.

• Ucore Exploration Strategy – Exploration of the Ucore holdings will systematically progress from initial compilations of historic information that will serve to establish exploration targets and relative priorities. Deposit delineation drilling programs are now considered warranted for some areas under consideration. Completion of high resolution airborne radiometric, magnetometer and electromagnetic surveying is envisioned to guide 2007 exploration programs.

* Reported by Warner and Barker, (1989) for United States Department of the Interior, Bureau Of Mines: These figures and associated resource estimates are historic in nature and not compliant with National Instrument 43-101. On this basis they cannot be relied upon as statements of mineral resources.

Overview

Bokan Mountain is Ucore's flagship property,  located 60 kilometres southwest of the coastal community of Ketchikan Alaska, near the southern end of Prince of Wales Island. The area of Ucore's greatest interest covers approximately 20 square kilometres centered on Bokan Mountain and is accessible by floatplane, helicopter or boat. All areas occur within the confines of the Craig Ranger District of Tongass National Forest and are subject to US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management adjudication.

The past producing Ross Adams uranium mine is located between elevations of approximately 300 and 900 feet (approximately 100 and 300 meters) above sea level on the south side of Bokan Mountain and is central to the area of Ucore interest. The now-abandoned mining sites can be accessed by a mine-era road system that extends from the shoreline of West Arm Kendrick Bay to the areas of past production.



History

The history of mineral exploration and production in the Bokan Mountain area primarily reflects activity during the period 1956 through 1972, highlights of which are  summarized below.
 
•  Ross Adams uranium deposit discovered and staked by D. Ross in 1956


•  Climax Molybdenum Company purchased an interest in the area in 1957  approximately 20,000 tons (18,140 tonnes) of thorium-bearing uranium ore grading approximately 1% U3O8 from an open pit.

•  Bay West Inc. leased the Ross-Adams property during 1961-1962 and  approximately 7500 tons (~6800 tonnes) of ore is reported to have been mined. 

•  In 1963 Standard Metals Corporation purchased the Bay West Inc. lease and approximately 12,000 additional tons (~10,880 tonnes) of ore was mined and shipped from the existing workings.

•  Standard Metals and local prospector R. Dotson discovered a northwest trending uraniferous vein and shear system southeast of the Ross–Adams deposit and termed this the Dotson Shear. The structure was proven along a distance of approximately 2.5 kilometres to the shoreline of West Arm Kendrick Bay.

•  Newmont Exploration Ltd. acquired leases in the area in 1968 and produced approximately 55,000 tons (~49,885 tonnes) of ore from underground operations  before cessation of mining in late 1971.

•  A new uranium deposit was delineated adjacent to the Ross Adams area in the early 1970’s and subsequent drilling served to define an uraniferous vein and shear system that was termed the I and L deposit. This appears to be spatially related to the fault-displaced northwest extension of the Dotson shear/vein/dike system referred to above. Although uranium grades of potentially economic proportions were defined at the I and L deposit, no development activities were carried out and the deposit remains un-mined to this date.

•  Historic exploration and development activities at Bokan Mountain identified economically significant levels of both light and heavy REE assemblages as well as niobium and zirconium in association with some of the known uraniferous zones. Assessment of uranium, REE, columbium yeterbium and zirconium potential of the area was the focus of a detailed study by Warner and Barker (1989) for the US Bureau of Mines and this highlighted the Bokan Mountain deposits and prospects as comprising one of the most significant REE resource areas in the United States.

Deposit Model

The uraniferous and REE bearing deposits of the Bokan Mountain area have been studied and categorized by various workers to date and results of such work have been reported by both government and academic interests (e.g. MacKevett (1963), Thompson (1980, 1988, 1998), Warner and Barker (1989), Staatz (1978), BLM (1998). These show that uranium and REE/niobium/zirconium mineralization of economic interest at Bokan Mountain occurs in several settings associated with the Jurassic Bokan Mountain peralkaline ring-dike intrusive complex. The most prominent mineralization styles are (1) plunging, broadly cylindrical pipes of highly altered, fractured and mineralized aegerine-bearing intrusive near the main border zone of the ring-dike complex, (2) mineralized, northwest oriented, steeply dipping albite-quartz dike systems and associated shear zones peripheral to the complex, (3) mineralized pegmatitic veins within a marginal phase of the complex, (4) as dispersed primary mineral phases within variably altered syenite emplaced late in the complex’s history and (5) as matrix replacement phases in hornfelsed and hydrothermally altered sandstones adjacent to or overlying the intrusion. In addition to these bedrock-hosted deposit styles, evidence of placer heavy mineral sands deposits has been suggested for some adjoining marine areas of West Arm Kendrick Bay.

Grade of ore produced from the Ross Adams mineralized pipe is reported to have averaged approximately 0.76% U3O8  but higher grade subzones were also reported. The C4 vein style deposit was mined in the Ross Adams operation and development showed that uraniferous shoots associated with shearing along the quartz-aegerine vein reached thicknesses up to 3 meters, with strike and dip continuity of the same pods reaching 30 meters. U3O8 grades defined by drilling of one C4 shoot ranged between 0.2% and 2.66% and provide an indication of grade characteristics possible in other vein/dike/shear systems on the Ucore property. 

Both fracture pipe and vein/shear uraniferous zones at Bokan Mountain show wall rock alteration features consisting of pervasive albitization, chloritization, carbonate replacement of mafic phases and both pervasive and localized hematite alteration. Fracture control to much of the alteration and mineralizing fluid paths is indicated and chlorite is heavily developed within higher grade (>.5% U3O8) zones while pervasive hematite alteration is more commonly associated with areas of lower grade (<0.5% U308) (Thompson, 1988). 


Exploration Program

The Ucore exploration holdings at Bokan Mountain cover a large area and substantial amounts of historic technical data pertaining to the past exploration and mining in the area have been accessed by Ucore. The company views this as an important asset and generation of a spatially integrated compilation of all such information is seen as the first step in planning 2007 exploration programs. Early review of this information has shown that excellent and well defined opportunities currently exist for delineation drill testing of known prominent uraniferous deposits such as the Ross-Adams and I and L Prospect and it is anticipated that compilation study results will result in a definition of additional early drilling targets based on results from other currently known prospects. The broader issue of assessing property scale exploration will be advanced through completion of an airborne radiometric, magnetic and electromagnetic survey, results of which will be integrated with those of the property compilation to  define ongoing exploration targets.

 

 I & L Zone