Toro Energy (ASX: TOE) is a uranium explorer operating in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, South Australia and in the African country of Namibia.
The company’s Western Australian Wiluna Project is at an advanced stage in government assessment and approval. The project hosts two shallow, generally less than 10m deep, calcrete deposits with a Measured, Indicated and Inferred resource of 24.4Mlbs of contained uranium
Toro Energy to spend $4.5 million on uranium exploration program
Emerging uranium developer Toro Energy (ASX: TOE) has announced it will spend $4.5 million on an exploration program to expand its uranium exploration drive in Western Australia and the Northern Territory in calendar 2010.
The allocation is the largest single exploration spend to date by Toro in any calendar year in the two regions and reflects, the Company says, its intense focus on building new uraniumexploration, development and future mining hubs in both.
Toro is already well anchored in the uranium sector in WA and the NT, with work to start next month on a resource evaluation pit at its advanced Wiluna project in WA and evaluation studies continuing on its Napperby project and surrounds northwest of Alice Springs.
Toro announced today the 2010 program in WA and the NT will comprise a total of 25,000m of drilling, along with significant airborne geophysics and ground sampling programs on several uranium targets.
The schedule includes targeted exploration on greenfield projects along with drilling on more developed brownfield shallow calcrete targets in proximity to the Wiluna Uranium Project.
On its new 100% owned and highly prospective uranium discovery at Lake Mackay in WA, Toro is planning to complete two phases of drilling using both aircore and mud rotary to fully assess the project’s Theseus prospect.
A second, calcrete-style, uranium discovery in drillhole LP0049 of 0.34m @ 110ppm eU3O8from 2.5m has opened up the potential for a significant surficial uranium deposit to the east of the Theseus Prospect.
This area will also be tested with shallow aircore drilling.
At Toro’s Birrindudu Project in WA (JV with Cameco) a program of drill testing targets generated by previous geophysical surveys will commence and involve 2,100m of Reverse Circulation and diamond drilling. Cameco Australia previously undertook over A$1m of geophysical surveys to identify targets at Birrindudu.
Airborne electromagnetic surveys and drill testing will be undertaken over parts of Toro’s significant tenement package in the Northern Territory. This will include drilling programs at Napperby Deeps, Reynolds Range and Sandover projects along with EM airborne surveys over new areas.
In Namibia in Africa, Deep Yellow is earning into Toro-held tenements there, and drilling potential extensions to the Langer Heinrich ore zone channel to the west of this deposit.
Toro Energy Managing Director Greg Hall said he believed greenfield and brownfield exploration using new and existing geological models and techniques would add to the Company’s potential pipeline of uranium projects.
"Along with carefully targeted value-adding project acquisitions, these will allow Toro to continue to grow as it heads towards its first mine development project at Wiluna by early 2013," Mr Hall said.
