Mawson Resources Ltd.
Sjaule Uranium Project
Project

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Sjaule Uranium Project Surface Plan
 

Uranium mineralization at Sjaule lies upon the same structural lineament which hosts Mawson's high grade Flistjärn project.

Ownership

The 201 Ha Sjaule nr 1 is 100% owned by Mawson Sweden AB (a 100% subsidiary of Mawson Resource Ltd).

Mawson has granted a third party, ASX-listed Hodges Resources Ltd, the right to earn up to 51% in the project by funding work program expenditures of US$1 million over 4 years on 4 of Mawson's earlier stage uranium projects (Norr Döttern, Sjaule, Åsnebogruvan and Harrejokk) in Sweden and up to 75% by fully funding any project to successful bankable feasibility.

Location

The County of Jämtland close to the Norwegian border in North Central Sweden.

History

Sjaule was discovered by the Swedish Geological Survey during a five year program initiated in 1975 to evaluate Sweden's self-sufficiency with respect to uranium, financed by the Svensk Kärnbränsleförsorjning AB or Swedish Nuclear Fuel Supply Company ("SKBF"). Uranium rich peat samples were collected in the area in 1975, radiometrics flown in 1976, followed by mapping and sampling which defined the outcropping uranium mineralization.

Property Geology

Mineralization at Sjaule is hosted by a structurally-imbricated block of Precambrian microgranite, breccia, mylonite and Paleozoic sediments. Mineralization is hosted in north east trending and steeply dipping fractures zones over an area of 700m by 950m.

Mineralization

Twenty-eight samples across the project area were measured with a gamma radiation detector and, as was the protocol at the time, only a small number were subsequently assayed by XRF methods to calibrate the field measurements. Five samples assayed from area by the Swedish Geological Survey in 1976, ranged from 0.005% U3O8 to 0.57% U3O8 and averaged 0.22% U3O8. The project was due to be drilled tested when the Swedish Government stopped its uranium exploration program.

The main mineralized structure defined with a gamma radiation detector is 20 metres wide and 300 metres long zone. Individual fractures are up to 5mm wide and the distance between them varies from 10cm to several metres. Uranium mineralization is characterized by concentric layered spherules of pitchblende up to 0.2mm in diameter and brannerite. The project remains to be drill tested.

History

World Nuclear Association Brief on Sweden

Ten nuclear power reactors provide approximately 50% of its electricity.

Swedish mining legislation allows exploration for uranium and places no special restriction on mining where the uranium grade is less than 200 ppm or the production is less than 5 kg. When higher uranium grades are present, permitting will follow a process concerning "nuclear technical activity". Such permitting must pass before the Swedish government for decision making.

Sweden has been an enthusiastic supporter of measures to improve world environmental quality. Among many others, Sweden in 1992 committed itself to stabilise carbon dioxide emissions at 1990 levels by 2000, and this was reaffirmed in Berlin in 1995. The fact that those levels in 1990 were only 60% of 1970's was due to nuclear energy replacing most oil for electricity generation.

Both the Energy Commission report and that of an independent economist, W.D.Nordhaus, project that a full nuclear phase-out would increase Sweden's carbon dioxide emissions by about 50% above the 1990 level. This is why European Union proposals for 1997 climate change negotiations allowed for a 5% increase in Sweden's emission levels due simply to the proposed Barsebäck reactor closure.

One problem with closing any reactor is that in the short run the replacement generation or imports would be fossil fuelled. Local back-up capacity is mostly oil-fired, as indicated in the 1996 figures when hydro production was much less than normal.

Sweden has its nuclear waste management well in hand. A dedicated ship moves the wastes from power plants to repositories. Some low-level waste is disposed of at reactor sites, some is incinerated at Studsvik. A final underground repository for intermediate-level waste (SFR) has been operating near Forsmark since 1988. The CLAB interim repository for spent fuel (treated as high level waste) has been operating since 1985 at Oskarshamn, and its 5000 tonne capacity is being expanded to 8000 tonnes to cater for all the fuel from all the present reactors. The spent fuel is stored under water in an underground rock cavern for some 40 years. It will then be encapsulated in copper and stainless steel canisters for final emplacement packed with bentonite clay in a 500 metre deep repository in granite.

Conclusion

The high-grade Sjaule project was considered by Swedish governmental geologists in the 1970's to be the most prospective project within the Hotagen inlier. The Company is extremely pleased to expand its uranium project portfolio with a project that has demonstrated high uranium grades over a large area at surface. Field work will commence in autumn and will consist of surface sampling and radon-cap surveys with the aim of delineating drill targets in the short term.

 
PROJECTS

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