Two Uranium Exploration Companies Slug It Out in Utah's Lisbon Valley, Part Two

By: James Finch
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:15:37
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Lisbon Valley is Known for Continuous, Flat, Tabular High Grade Uranium Deposits

“The deposits are amoeboid shaped and are generally longer parallel to the anticlinal axis,” wrote engineer Ken Thorsen in a March 2005 report for Universal Uranium. In our chat with Richard Dorman, the company’s exploration manager, he called them “lenticular.” He added, “They’re pods – they are actually kind of amoebae-shaped ore bodies in sandstone.” Those are the exploration targets for both Universal Uranium and Mesa. Both geologists referred to the red splotches on the Lisbon Valley map, noting the sixteen previously producing uranium mines.

By coincidence, red is what drillers will pull up in the cuttings in the Chinle Formation, for about 150 to 200 feet. “The first indication that you’re in the Moss Back – everything you’re cutting is red,” explained Bill Thompson, the local geologist for Mesa Uranium. “The Chinle – the upper Chinle, all the sands are red. But the Moss Back is gray. It will stay gray for the 60 feet that we’re in the Moss Back, and then it will turn back into a brighter red when you go into the Cutler (formation).”

Thompson explained drilling in the area. “Down through the pipe, they inject a real strong mixture of water and soap. Like Ivory Soap®, but more concentrated. They put about a gallon into about a 200 gallon tub and it still has the consistency of corn meal, not quite syrup. It’s concentrated soap.”

Why do drillers use soap? Thompson pointed out, “The soap foams up and carries the cuttings out. It provides enough body that lifts the cuttings out. If you had thick foam in your sink, you could probably sprinkle dust or dirt on it, and it would float on top of that foam. It would hold it up.”

Thompson added, “The drillers push big air down there. They got one compressor and an auxiliary compressor. They pump a lot of air down the center of the pipe and blows up on the outside. You can do that as long as the hole isn’t making so much water that it overcomes the soap.” Typically, drilling starts with compressed air, because that’s reportedly the fastest way to drill. Then drillers switch to water and soap injection.

Drilling each hole takes about three to three and one-half days and goes down about 2600 feet. What are the drillers and geologists looking for? “You’re looking for the gray foam coming out of the pit,” said Thompson. “The pit’s turned gray at the top of the pit. We know we’re in the Moss Back.”

Drilling to the Moss Back is the first step. How thick is the sandstone unit? “When I say favorable Moss Back, it’s gray and reduced,” Thompson explained. “It’s 30 to 60 feet thick.” Intersecting thick section of the Moss Back is mandatory. “I would be happy to find a thickness of 40 feet,” said Dorman. Along with that, you have to encounter a reducing environment.

Richard Dorman of Universal Uranium explained about his recent drilling efforts, “We found the Moss Back. In these types of pods, you have to have a reducing environment to be able to precipitate the uranium out of solution.” So what is a reduced Moss Back environment? “We have pyrite and carbonaceous black flakes of carbon,” Dorman responded. The carbonaceous flakes are “basically plant debris,” he told us.

“On the western side, in the Cord, the North Alice, the Homestake – all of those (uranium) mines along there, you had to have the reducing environment,” Dorman explained. “You have to have pyrite and the carbonaceous trash in order to form an ore body.” That was the western side of the fault, but what about the eastern side, where Universal Uranium is currently drilling? “We have found the same conditions on the east side,” Dorman told us.

James Finch contributes to StockInterview.com and other publications. Visit http://www.stockinterview.com to download your free copy of “Investing in the Great Uranium Bull Market: A Practical Investor’s Guide to Uranium Stocks.” You can always write to James Finch at jfinch@stockinterview.com

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