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 |   Wed Apr 11, 2007
Bitterroot and Cameco Strike Uranium at Michigan JV
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| | By Jon A. Nones
11 Apr 2007 at 03:26 PM GMT-04:00
St. LOUIS (ResourceInvestor.com) -- Bitterroot Resources announced yesterday that drilling at Michigans Jacobsville Basin returned a 0.6 metre intersection that contains 75 parts per million (ppm) U3O8, including 0.12 metre intervals of over 100 ppm uranium. Although investors were unimpressed with the find, at least one analyst sees a buy opportunity.
After the results were released, shares in Bitterroot traded as low as $0.66 on volume in excess of 1.2 million shares in the first hour. Robert Bishop, editor of the Gold Stock Mining Report, said in an e-mail update that this could be a good time to get in.
I don't recommend buying into momentum trades, such as developed in Bitterroot in recent days, but I'll happily suggest that owning some Bitterroot on today's sell off is likely to be looked back upon as a good idea, he said.
Bishop said that history suggests that a stock is in trouble when any commodity is being reported in parts per million, hence the sell off. However, he said speculators had taken control of Bitterroot in recent days, and the news has served to flush them out of their long-term holdings.
The speculation is being removed from the stock, the chart has returned to breakout levels, and encouraging results from this first pass at exploration will be followed up in the fall, he said.
Bitterroot [TSXv:BTT] and its joint venture partner Cameco Corporation [NYSE:CCJ; TSX:CCO] recently completed a seven-hole, 1,322 metre drilling program to test geophysical targets in the Jacobsville Basin. Additional drilling is planned in the second half of 2007.
Cameco has the option to acquire a 65% interest in all targets within the area of interest by incurring total expenditures of C$23,600,000 (US$20,000,000) over the next 14 years. Cameco must incur expenditures of C$500,000 before August 2007 and another C$500,000 before 2008.
In speaking to RI at the Uranium Stock Summit, Michael Carr, President of Bitterroot Resources, said Hole No. 1 revealed the noted results, but was more distant from the other six holes. Carr said the company hopes to obtain permits in the fall for further drilling to fill in the space.
Carr said Cameco were pleased with the results, calling the area highly anomalous. Six of the holes intersected strongly graphitic conductive zones in basement rocks immediately below a proterozoic unconformity.
Bishop said the important takeaway from the release was the following sentence:
These intervals are considered to be significant as they confirm that uranium-bearing fluids have been active in the Jacobsville Basin.
He referred to comments he made earlier in April:
Discovering any uranium in the recent drill program, however low grade, will be a major success, one that strongly implies that a uranium deposit remains to be found in close proximity, said Bishop, adding that finding any uranium in the first drill program is significant.
According to Carr, Cameco has spent about $420,000 to date and believes it will spend the remaining $80,000 by this summer. He said it is a favourable agreement for Bitterroot since Cameco brings in the experience and Bitterroot supplies the work force.
Carr said permitting will be challenging, but other mines have been developed in the area historically and many companies are currently exploring. Cameco has expertise with permitting projects and will be valuable in the process, he said.
Kennecotts Eagle nickel/copper/platinum group metals deposit has been the most significant discovery in the area of late. The Eagle deposit is in the permitting stage and is expected to enter commercial production within the next two years.
Michigan has an under explored proterozoic basin with good infrastructure and low costs in a state with a positive mining history, added Carr.
Other Assets
Bitterroot has three other active exploration projects underway, all in British Columbia, Canada. Bitterroot owns 100% of these properties: two gold exploration projects and one molybdenum-copper-gold exploration project.
The companys Mineral Creek gold project is the most advanced, said Carr. He said Westmin spent C$12 million on drilling in the late 80s.
The Mineral Creek Property is comprised of 24 claims covering approximately 5560 hectares, which are accessible by an extensive network of all weather logging roads and close to industrial infrastructure including grid power and a deep water port.
The property includes many significant gold occurrences within an elevation range of more than 800 metres, according to the company. Bitterroot is currently processing bulk sampling to judge continuity and grade, with hopes of obtaining permits to drill this spring.
The company also holds the North Brenda molybdenum-copper-gold property in B.C. Carr said the company plans to begin drilling at North Brenda in the fall of this year. He said the deposit is next to an historic ore body and has great infrastructure to cut down on costs.
The companys GK Project is located in south-central B.C., eight kilometres east of the Highland Bell silver mine. The results received to date are very encouraging, according to Bitterroot, and have defined several areas which host coincident anomalous gold, silver and copper in soil.
In the spring of 2007, a program of backhoe trenching and mapping is planned at the Hornet Zone, prior to additional drilling in the second half of 2007.
Conclusion
Bishop said the company is well financed and it has a modest market capitalization-$25 million less than at this time yesterday.
He said today's news wasn't good enough to keep the Bitterroot market momentum play alive, but it will bring the partners back to Michigan in a much better position to improve on the initial results.
Buy some stock from those who apparently think that mines are found in the first round of drilling, he concluded.
Shares of Bitterroot closed down 34 cents yesterday at 76 cents. Today, shares are up 1 cent at 76 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange Venture. |
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| Fri Nov 25, 2005
Bitterroot revives Mineral Creek gold project
Publisher: The Northern Miner
Author: VIVIAN DANIELSON
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