The Amarillo Grande Project includes approximately 110 registered properties with a total area of over 230,000 hectares (to January 2024) and is 100% controlled by Blue Sky Uranium through its local wholly owned subsidiary Minera Cielo Azul S.A.
June 10, 2024 - Blue Sky Uranium Corp. is pleased to announce that it has entered into a binding term sheet effective as of June 6, 2024 with Corredor Americano S.A. (“COAM”), to complete an option agreement in respect to the Ivana Uranium-Vanadium Deposit.
COAM can earn up to a 50% indirect interest in the Property by spending up to US$35M and advancing Ivana through to completion of a feasibility study, and to drill key exploration targets located in adjacent areas of the Property.
Following a positive feasibility study, COAM can earn an additional 1% upon its decision to fund the capital cost of the Project and further 29% interest by funding 100% of the estimated capital costs to achieve commercial production.
- subscription is required.
Summary:
The Amarillo Grande Project includes the Ivana uranium-vanadium deposit.
Property Geology
The strata present at the Ivana prospect are continental epiclastic and pyroclastic rocks of the Oligoceneearly Miocene Chichinales Formation that were deposited unconformably over the rocks of the North Patagonian Massif, or over a marine sequence of Arroyo Barbudo Formation and red beds section of Neuquén Group.
The Chichinales Formation has been divided into three members. The lower member, host to the Ivana uranium-vanadium mineralization, is commonly cross-bedded medium to coarse sandstone with silicified logs and fossil-wood debris. The lower Chichinales, at the Ivana prospect, contains layers of coarse, poorly sorted conglomerate, pebbly tuffaceous sandstone and small discontinuous layers and interbeds of mudstone and sandstone with carbonate cement.
The Middle Members contains characteristic paleosols in sequences of siltstone, mudstone and minor layers of fine sandstone. Finally, the Upper member comprises uniform thick sequences of coarse to fine tuffaceous sandstone and siltstone with interstratified mudstone at the bottom and mostly siltstone to fine sandstone at the top (Bjerg, 1997). Regionally some alteration patterns have been defined by diagenetic red beds style oxidation and gray reduction-bleaching in Chichinales sandstone.
Outside the Ivana prospect, the upper part of the Chichinales interfingers with marginal marine sediments of the Bajo del Gualicho formation. Unconsolidated Quaternary deposits consisting of fine lacustrine salar sediments, sand dunes, and alluvial and colluvial accumulations cover parts of the area.
Mineralization
The uranium-vanadium mineralized horizons are hosted mostly in medium to coarse-grained, poorly consolidated sandstones, minor conglomerates, and mudstones of the lower Chichinales Formation; in weathered basement in fractures and secondary porosity; and in the regolith debris at the basement unconformity. Occasionally, uranium occurrences have been intercepted in the Arroyo Barbudo Formation and in red beds of the Neuquén group. The majority of uranium (~90%) in uranium-bearing minerals identified at Ivana is U+6 and therefore can be classified as secondary or oxide mineralization. The uranium mineralization has been divided into two types based on dominant uranium mineralogy and/or alteration and gangue mineralogy; 1) Oxide mineralization characterized by carnotite and oxide alteration minerals, and 2) Altered “primary” mineralization characterized by variant of coffinite, that has been named ß-coffinite (beta-coffinite) by the Company and which contains mainly U+6 rather than U+4 which is normal for coffinite, and pyrite. These two varieties of uranium mineralization are associated with alteration assemblages that suggest aspects of at least two types of uranium deposits, and related depositional environments, are present in the Ivana deposit.
Oxide Mineralization
The oxide mineralization at Ivana is visibly dominated by carnotite, the yellow potassium uranium vanadate [K2(UO2)2(VO4)2.3H2O] that occurs as coatings on pebbles and sand grains, and as disseminations in poorly consolidated sandstone and conglomerate. This mineralization style is closely associated with silicified or carbonized fossil wood and clusters of gypsum crystals that have grown in soft fine sediments. The most abundant uranium mineral identified by the recent QEMSCAN® work (Creighton, 2018) on “oxide” type mineralization, however, was ß-coffinite (beta-coffinite).
The mineralogy of all secondary uranium (U+6) minerals in the oxide mineralization at Ivana has not been completely determined. The term carnotite has been used in sample and RC drill cuttings descriptions as a field description for the yellow-coloured radioactive mineral. In a recent QEMSCAN analysis of samples from the Ivana deposit (Creighton, 2018) carnotite was confirmed and lesser tyuyamunite, leibigite, and a previously unreported uranium mineral were detected. Leibigite is a hydrated calcium-uranium carbonate [Ca2(UO2)(CO3)3*11H20] and appears to belong with the oxide mineralization, as does tyuyamunite, a hydrated calcium-uranium vanadate [Ca(UO2)2V2O8*(5-8)H2O]. The "previously unreported uranium mineral" may be a complex mixture of a uranium mineral and a clay mineral such that the QEMSCAN cannot resolve a match with the any known uranium mineral.
Oxide mineralization is associated with yellow or brown iron oxides derived from oxidized pyrite, and red iron oxides from altered iron or iron-titanium minerals, which are relatively common as disseminations in sandstones or as components in heavy mineral layers. The oxidation of these ron minerals has produced irregular iron oxide stained zones associated with oxide mineralization.
Altered Primary Mineralization
In the Ivana deposit altered primary mineralization has been found only in RC drill hole interceptions from 5-20 m in depth and has not been identified at the surface. The altered primary mineralization is characterized by disseminated pyrite and gray-coloured bleaching, and some of the primary mineralization contains a dark-brown to black vitreous carbonaceous looking material associated with disseminated pyrite. The high-grade mineralization also contains smoky quartz grains, and minor natural organic carbon. Different forms of overgrowths of pyrite have been documented including cubic crystals (10 µm) with overgrowths of sub-euhedral crystals (2 to 3 µm) and/or overgrowths of botryoidal pyrite (1 to 2 µm).
Distribution of mineralization types
The Ivana deposit is characterized by two stacked zones of uranium mineralization, the upper zone and the lower zone. The upper zone is comprised of oxidized mineralization, and the lower zone contains a mixture of oxidized and reduced primary-style mineralization. The two zones occur together through most of the deposit but there are localized areas where only one zone is present. The upper zone averages 2.7 m in thickness, with a maximum of 10 m, while the lower zone has a maximum of 20 m and has an average thickness of 6.2 m.
Deposit Types
The Ivana uranium-vanadium deposit has some of the characteristics of two types of uranium deposits widely recognized around the world: sandstone-hosted uranium deposits and surficial uranium deposits.