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| | October 10, 2007
CANADA VENTURE: Blue-Sky Thinking In Argentina
Publisher: DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Author: Brian Truscott
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VANCOUVER (Dow Jones) --The word "grassroots" is generally used to describe most junior explorers, who are often busy staking claims and poking sticks in the ground, hoping to strike some sort of mineralization - be it gold, nickel or uranium.
But that generic grassroots label shouldn't be branded on Blue Sky Uranium Corp. (BSK.V), especially when looking at its Argentine overture, according to newly ensconced Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer Clifton Farrell.
"Yes, we are at the early stages of exploration, but we're not simply grabbing land and trying to find uranium - we're a little bit beyond that," said Farrell, fresh from a long stint at the Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington, where we was responsible for licensing and regulatory affairs.
Case in point: Blue Sky has tapped the services of Dr. Jorge Berizzo, who spent 14 years as senior exploration geologist for the Argentine government.
"We're focusing on areas that he has brought to our attention," Farrell said. "We have good expertise in the country and clearly good information."
The company, which is quickly setting up a large team in the country, announced Oct. 3 it had finished a 3,000-square-kilometer airborne radiometric survey of its property in the Rio Negro province of Argentina. Results will likely be released in a week or two.
Blue Sky has an option to earn a 75% interest in the 150,000-acre project, known as Santa Barbara, from the Argentina Uranium Corp. Depending on the results of the airborne survey, Blue Sky will probably seek new financing to fund a drilling program in 2008, Farrell said.
Of course, one of the key reasons why Blue Sky - and a handful of other junior resource companies - have been looking closely at Argentina is because of the government's intention to bolster the uranium supply to its domestic grid.
The country has two active reactors and plans to start up a third, but the amount of uranium needed to meet demand will have to be ramped up to the 200-tons-a-year level from its current 120 tons a year.
Argentina Just One of Three Projects
Farrell said Argentina will be a Blue Sky focal point in coming years, but the company also has active projects in Columbia, and perhaps more importantly, in Saskatchewan.
Blue Sky has an option with Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. (EPL.V) to earn a 60% interest in the 20,000-acre Eagle Lake Uranium property. Farrell said the area is just outside the Athabasca basin but is virtually surrounded by other claims, including a property owned by JNR Resources Inc. (JNN.V), which is also ready to commence drilling.
The Columbian project is less advanced.
"This is a new venture for us; we do have several thousand square kilometers in Santander - an area where there has been limited work done in the past by the government, where traces of uranium have been found," Farrell said. "We will be assembling a team to go in and have a look."
Blue Sky's South American assets is one of the key reason why Farrell decided to make the jump back into the private sector; his pedigree within the uranium field is somewhat unusual, having worked almost exclusively within the uranium and alternative energy industries for the past 25 years. And some of his work included stints in South America, primarily in Ecuador and Peru.
What's more, Blue Sky's intention to pursue solution mining harkens back to the early days in his career when he worked for a Swiss company that produced solution-based mines in Arizona and Wyoming.
"When I saw a company like Blue Sky that was pursuing solution mining development in a country that I have always regarded with great interest, well, everything sort of fit together," he said.
Blue Sky is now one of hundreds of companies exploring fields around the world looking for uranium, because there's a growing demand-supply mismatch, especially out past 2013, when the conversion of Russian military-grade stockpiles comes to an end. That means new inventory will fetch a premium via merger and acquisition or by selling U308 in the global market place.
In Canada, for example, there are something like 400 companies poking around the tundra looking for uranium.
Farrell - who expresses surprise at the way the nuclear industry has quickly come back into vogue - said the explosion in explorers looking for a uranium find is a natural response in a market where there has been "terrible underinvestment" for years.
But the bottom line, as in past resource rushes, if you will, is that maybe 10% of those 400 companies will ever make an economic or feasible strike that can be taken to market, he said.
Company Web Site: http://www.blueskyuranium.com |
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