The Stensjödalen area has high uranium grades up to 5.1% U3O8 from surface outcrops, and a first program of drilling successfully extended uranium mineralization under cover. Drilled uranium mineralization at Stensjödalen and Stensjödalen South extends the total zone over a 450--metre-long trend.

The project and is located within the 100%-owned Hotagen nr 1 exploration permit of 5,273 hectares.

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Map of the Regional Hotagen nr 1 Permit Area with Airborne Radiometric (Uranium) Grid

The project area lies three kilometres northwest of Mawson's Kläppibäcken project and is contained with the 100%-owned Hotagen nr 1 exploration permit of 5273 hectares.

The prospect was first discovered by the Swedish Geological Survey ("SGU") in the early 1980s, when three samples taken from outcrop areas averaged 2.1% U3O8, and ranged from 0.2% to 5.1% U3O8. Forty boulders are associated with the mineralized outcrop. Five boulder samples averaged 0.6% U3O8 and ranged from 0.2% to 1.9% U3O8. The SGU completed a total of 15 diamond drill holes at the prospect over a 150-metre by 50-metre area. The project remains open along strike and at depth.

At the Stensjödalen prospect, a granite host rock with multiple uranium-fluorite-hematite bearing fractures and zones of cataclastic breccia are exposed within outcrops over a 50-metre-square area. Each uranium mineralized structure ranges from decimetres to half-metre widths.

Three samples taken from outcrop areas averaged 2.1% U3O8, and ranged from 0.2% to 5.1% U3O8. Forty boulders are associated with the mineralized outcrop. Five boulder samples averaged 0.6% U3O8 and ranged from 0.2% to 1.9% U3O8. Summary of surface samples that were assayed included:

Sample	U3O8%	Description
7483:435	0.21	Outcrop, cataclastic granite
7583:399	0.82	Outcrop, cataclastic granite
7583:400	5.14	Outcrop, cataclastic granite
7583:893	1.92	Boulder , cataclastic granite
7583:895	0.15	Boulder , cataclastic granite
7683:709	0.17	Boulder , cataclastic granite
7683:713	0.04	Boulder , red granite
7683:715	0.54	Boulder , red granite

The SGU completed a total of 15 diamond drill holes at the prospect over a 150-metre by 50-metre area. The project remains open along strike and at depth. Better drill results from this campaign included:

hole_id	from (m)	to (m)	width (m)	U3O8%
SJD83801	13	14	1	0.13
SJD83801	15	16	1	0.64
SJD83803	10	11	1	0.12
SJD83803	15	20	5	0.19
SJD83803	23	26	3	0.19
SJD83804	51	52	1	0.11
SJD83804	59	60	1	0.59
SJD83806	18	20	2	0.48
SJD83806	24	25	1	0.08
SJD83807	3	4	1	0.12
SJD83807	15	22	7	0.14
SJD83807	28	30	2	0.07
SJD83807	33	36	3	0.33
SJD83807	41	44	3	0.75
SJD83807	71	73	2	0.09
SJD84804	75	77	2	0.29
SJD84805	20	22	2	0.09

At Stensjödalen South, a glacial boulder train with a total of 110 radioactive boulders has been discovered 450 metres south of the prospect area. Analyses from two mineralized boulders returned 0.6% U3O8 and 0.1% U3O8. One SGU drillhole has been completed to test the prospect, which returned 2 metres for 0.29% U3O8 from 75 metres in drillhole 84804.

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.

The Stensjödalen area has high uranium grades up to 5.1% U3O8 from surface outcrops, and a first program of drilling successfully extended uranium mineralization under cover. Drilled uranium mineralization at Stensjödalen and Stensjödalen South extends the total zone over a 450--metre-long trend. Previous exploration of the project did not continue beyond the early 1980s, due to the change in sentiment towards the nuclear industry at that time, leaving the potential for mineralization along strike and at depth untested. The proximity of this project to Mawson's Kläppibäcken uranium project. located only three kilometres away where better drill intersections include 53.1m for 0.16% U3O8 from 30.2m, is particularly encouraging.