Blue Sky Uranium (TSX-V: BSK) has achieved a significant milestone in the advancement of its wholly-owned Amarillo Grande uranium-vanadium project in Argentina’s Rio Negro province by successfully completing drilling at the project’s Ivana deposit, which serves as a cornerstone for the project.
The reverse circulation program was strategically designed to explore the potential expansion of Ivana to the west and to add holes in areas of lower density at the margins of the deposit, with the aim of facilitating resource upgrades. A total of 350 holes were drilled, covering a distance of 3255 meters, bringing the cumulative number of holes drilled at the immediate Ivana deposit area to 838, totaling 10,877 meters.
Initial results from the drilling program reported in February showed promising highlights, including significant concentrations of uranium oxide and vanadium pentoxide. Blue Sky’s CEO, Nikolaos Cacos, emphasized that the completion of the program marks a critical advancement towards the pre-development phase of Ivana and noted that many of the high vanadium numbers discovered in the assays exceeded the average grade in Ivana’s current resource estimate.
Amarillo Grande, located in the Patagonia region of southern Argentina, represents a district-scale uranium discovery with the country’s largest inferred host resource of 22.7 million pounds of uranium and 11.5 million pounds of vanadium. The project’s mineralization is primarily found at the Ivana, Anit, and Santa Barbara target areas along a 145-kilometer trend, located near the surface in unconsolidated to weakly-cemented host rocks, suggesting the potential for simple and cost-effective open pit mining operations for Blue Sky.
In addition to the drilling at Ivana, the company is actively exploring the potential of the Ivana North and Central target areas north of the main Ivana deposit. An October campaign revealed anomalous low-grade uranium intercepts in 30% of the holes completed at Ivana North, indicating the presence of potential uranium mineralization in the region.
With an aggressive exploration program initiated in 2016, Blue Sky aims to delineate resources and assess the economics of the project to capitalize on its early-mover advantage. The company aspires to become the first domestic supplier of uranium oxide to Argentina’s nuclear industry and potentially expand its reach to international markets, particularly in the growing vanadium sector.
Considering Argentina’s position as the largest consumer of nuclear power in Latin America, the surge in global interest for vanadium presents a significant opportunity for Blue Sky to expand its target markets and enhance its global presence. As the world continues to rely heavily on uranium production from countries such as Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia, Argentina’s commitment to nuclear power and its plans for future reactor expansion further underscore the potential significance of projects like Amarillo Grande in meeting global energy demands.
