Rattler’s project area includes the historical Rattlesnake open pit mine, which produced 1.6Mlbs of U3O8 and 4.5Mlbs of V2O5 between 1948 until 1954. Within 15km of the Rattlesnake mine, the Pandora, La Sal, Beaver, Energy Queen and Pine Ridge mines all operated during the 1970s until the early 1980s, with ore from these mines processed at mills in Uravan, Moab and Blanding (now Energy Fuels’ White Mesa Mill).
Historic production in the immediate district is estimated to comprise around 6.4Mlbs of U3O8 at 3,200ppm and 29Mlbs of V2O5 at 14,600ppm.
Denison Mines and Energy Fuels Inc. reactivated mining at Pandora in 2006, producing a further 1.66Mlbs of U3O8 at 2,000ppm and 8.4 million pounds of V2O5 at 10,200ppm between 2006 and 2012.
In 2014, Energy Fuels reported that remaining resources at the Pandora, La Sal, Beaver, Energy Queen and Redd Deposits comprise a total 4.5Mlbs U3O8 and 23.4Mlbs of V2O5.
Strong Exploration Potential
The Rattlesnake deposit is the only outcropping uranium deposit in the immediate area. All other deposits have been discovered with exploration drilling. There exists considerable potential to discover additional high-grade mineralisation using modern exploration techniques.
In early 2022, Okapi received approval from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the State of Utah, Division of Oil, Gas and Mining for the Notice of Intent to conduct exploration at Rattler. The jointly received notices approve Okapi’s reverse circulation exploration drill program that comprises 100 shallow drill holes to test the extent and nature of the Uranium mineralisation historically mined at the Rattlesnake Mine and confirmed by recent rock sample results.
Additionally, Okapi announced Rattlesnake rock samples returning values up to 1.24% U3O8 (12,400ppm) and Sunnyside rock samples with value up to 0.759% U3O8 (7,590ppm) from a total of 28 rock samples collected. Of the 28 rock samples collected, 15 reported values greater than 1,000ppm U3O8. The pulp samples were reanalysed for vanadium where 18 of the 28 samples reported values greater than 5,000 ppm V2O5 (0.5% V2O5).
Okapi
Projects
Tallahassee Uranium Project
Our flagship Tallahassee Uranium Project comprises five major uranium deposits in Colorado, USA with an overall JORC Resource of 49.8Mlbs U3O8 (average grade of 540ppm).
Athabasca Basin Projects
Okapi has six exploration projects in Canada’s Athabasca Basin, best known as the world’s leading source of high-grade uranium and responsible for about 20% of the world’s uranium.
Rattler Uranium Project
Located within the recognised La Sal Uranium District in Utah, the Rattler Project is located 85km north of Energy Fuels Inc’s White Mesa Uranium/Vanadium mill in Utah – the only operating conventional uranium mill in the USA.