Interview with Ross McElroy, President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Geologist of Fission Uranium (TSX:FCU)
Fission Uranium Corp (TSX:FCU) owns the award-winning Patterson Lake South (PLS) uranium project, host to the near-surface, high-grade Triple R deposit – part of the largest mineralized trend in the Athabasca Basin region. Major new high-grade zones have been discovered each year since discovery in 2012 and, recently, exploration drilling encountered mineralization 600m west of the trend. Headed up by CEO, Dev Randhawa, and President / COO and Chief Geologist, Ross McElroy, Fission is one of the most successful exploration companies in the uranium sector.
Q: Please provide a short description of Fission Uranium and its projects.
A: Fission Uranium is basically uranium explore, we operate in the world premier uranium district which is at the Athabasca Basin. We have a single project called “The PLS project”, and on that project we’ve discovered what’s now the third largest uranium resource in the Athabasca Basin region. It’s called the “Triple R deposit”. The Triple R is a high-grade, very large deposit. Importantly it’s very shallow, so it’s a near surface deposit, and it’s something that generally recognizes. It’s a number one uranium project now in the world, so we’ve been able to do that over the two and half years.
Q: Earlier today (June 1), Fission press released a new report on its Triple R deposit. What do these results mean for the company?
A: Just earlier today, we put out a release of 7 holes, their assay result from our winter drill program, so 5 of the holes were from the 780 zone, which is part of the Triple R Deposit, and what they were doing is focusing on expanding the footprint and also growing the high-grade demand that we’ve been able to delineate in there. So essentially these holes confirm our idea that the deposit isn’t affect, looks to be growing, the footprint is growing, and the high-grade demand seems to be growing. So that’s all our benefit. Two of the holes came from a brand new discovery that we made earlier this winter called the R600 west, that zone is located 550 meters to the west of the deposit on trend, and it’s an important new discovery because it’s very strong mineralization, it looks to be very wide and again shallow, similar to the rest of the Triple R deposit, and it’s close enough it’s actually meaningful to the overall assays. It’s something we are going to continue drilling and focusing on, for us it represents an area of growth.
Q: With China’s plans for rapid expansion of nuclear power plants, as well as the world’s growing demand for energy, how do you see market fundamentals for the uranium sector over the next few months?
A: China is absolutely the big story right now, China’s growth is unparalleled by anybody else, China currently has I believe is 24 operating reactors, but they are on the pathway to build well over 100, probably even closer to 200 reactor overall in the next say 30 years. China’s energy demands are growing, they want nuclear to be a significant part of that energy mix. So it’s an important aspect for us. Alternately, that’s what’s going to be driving our industry, our grow stories, so you’ve got the Chinese story and another important growth is India. The entire Middle East is starting to embrace nuclear power as well; there is operating reactors in the United Emirates as well. So basically these growth stories are going to necessitate supply of uranium, and that’s where Canada fits in. So we are already the number two producer of uranium, uranium supplier to the world, but importantly our deposit is very high-grade, which is important. So these thing all working together, we think it’s going to drive the placer uranium up, so when the demand growing, Canada as an important supplier, all these things play a part in the increase of uranium price over the next probably 2 years, which is probably being a bull market of uranium. That’s my feeling.
Q: Do you have any big news coming up for the next month for the company?
A: We have two big important events coming up. First of all, our summer drill program will be starting up the beginning of July, so basically one month from now. That will be a 20,000 meters program, drill of another 60 holes; we’ll be focusing third of the program on developing our new high-grade discovery the R600W. Another very important milestone for us will be PEA, Preliminary Economic Assessment, which we expected to be out by September of this year. That will start to put economic around deposit, so people start to see the mining method, the cost of production and it’s our believe that the PLS project and the Triple R deposit will show to be a very low cost producer, and that will be illuminated with the PEA. So again for the second half of this year, there will be 2 very exciting news stories for us.
