SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: GTI Resources Ltd has entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100% of Branka Minerals Pty Ltd, holder of 8,900 hectares across several groups of strategically located and underexplored mineral lode claims and 2 state leases, prospective for sandstone hosted uranium, located in the Great Divide Basin (GDB), Wyoming , USA & the Uravan Belt, Colorado, USA.
The Wyoming Properties, which will be GTI’s priority for exploration, are located in proximity to UR Energy’s (URE) Lost Creek ISR Facility & Rio Tinto’s (RIO) Sweetwater/Kennecott Mill.
The Wyoming Properties are located on or close to the Great Divide roll front REDOX boundary and close to several significant deposits including, URE’s Lost Creek and Lost Soldier Deposits and Uranium One’s Antelope and Jab deposits.
A number of the Properties host known sandstone hosted uranium mineralisation as evidenced by historical drill maps and logs.
The US led the world for uranium production from 1953 to 1980 with peak production of 16,810 tonnes p.a. however the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that during 2019 total annual US uranium concentrate production fell to less than 200,000 pounds ‐ the lowest volume since 19483.
The collapse in US domestic uranium production, driven by subeconomic pricing and withdrawal of US industry support, has become a significant national security concern.
Wyoming has produced a total of 84,000 tonnes of uranium since records began and from 1995 to 2015 was the leading state for US production. Since the early 1990s, this production has all been ISR5 mined.
ISR mining is now the predominant type of uranium mining in the US and the world accounting for 100% of Wyoming production and now more than 90% of total US production.
The GDB is one of several major basins within the Wyoming Basin Physiographic Province. Wyoming basins include the Powder River Basin, Wind River Basin (Gas Hills), Shirley Basin and the Great Divide Basin with all of these basins known to host economic, ISR amenable, sandstone‐type roll front hosted uranium deposits.