The Breccia Pipes property consists of nearly 450 mining claims (about 9000 acres) in Mohave County, Arizona in a historic mining district know as the Arizona Strip near the Grand Canyon and 16 claims in Coconino County, on the south side of the canyon. The north rim claims cover more than 50 mature targets ready for drilling to confirm the presence of a collapsed pipe. The claims on the south rim cover four targets that require further mapping before drilling.
The target for the project is uranium hosted in collapsed breccia pipes. The breccia pipes were formed by the collapse of overlying strata into caverns formed in carbonates of the Redwall Limestone. Stoping propagated the collapse upward and formed cylindrical bodies of brecciated rock 50 to 300 feet in diameter.
Mineralization of the breccia column extends from the carbonates of the Toroweap and Kaibab Formation downward into Supai Group rocks. Disseminated marcasite associated with uranium mineralization is indistinguishable in the upper part of the pipe from diagenetic iron sulfide which makes up less than 0.05% of the hosting carbonate rocks. However, at or near the Toroweap-Coconino contact, ore-associated sulfides increase dramatically in abundance, at times exceeding fifty percent of total rock volume.
The average grade of the uranium ore mined in the Arizona Strip is variously reported as 0.65% and 0.80% U308. The size of the deposits has historically varied from 900,000 lb U308 to 4,400,000 lb of recovered U308. Eight ore bearing pipes have been mined or developed on the North Rim of the canyon producing 24 million pounds of U3O8.
The exploration target on this project is pipes similar to those defined by earlier operators. The existing claim blocks are immediately adjacent to, or close by, known pipes, some of which have been partially or completely mined. The STAR claims are adjacent to the Arizona #1 mine, the JAVA claims are close to the Canyon mine, and the KAI claims are adjacent to the Hermit Mine.
Airphoto interpretation on all three claim blocks resulted in the identification of potential collapse structures. In addition, detailed surface mapping has been carried out on the STAR claims. This mapping has led to the identification of 23 target features on the claims.
A stratigraphic drilling program, completed in early February, 2006, has identified 2 definite collapse structures, which are consistent with pipes, from the seven targets tested.
An aggressive exploration program is anticipated for 2007 on this project.
