Ecotrade has provided several Environmental works; environmental baseline survey, Environmental Protection plan, Environmental Monitoring Programs and Environmental due diligence, for Gurvan Bulag Uranium Mining since 2005. They have also prepared comprehensive detailed EIA Reports for Government Approvals.
The existing Gurbanbulag uranium mine and Saddle Hills Area was fully acquired by the Russians before 1997 and has since moved to Canadian Western Prospectors Inc.
Located in eastern Mongolia, in a region with moderately established infrastructure, the Saddle Hills Uranium Project is comprised of 12 contiguous exploration licenses covering an approximate area of 1,900 square kilometers (190,000 hectares).
There are two equally important aspects of the Saddle Hills Uranium Project: the inclusion of the Gurvanbulag uranium deposits which were partially developed by the Russians during the 1980s, and the presence of numerous uranium exploration targets identified by prior and recent geophysical surveys and exploratory drilling within a 75 by 15 kilometre Mesozoic volcano-sedimentary basin.
Geology
Uranium mineralization occurs predominantly as strata bound lenses, broadly following stratigraphy in the lower part of a Mesozoic stratigraphic sequence of sediments grading up into volcanic rocks in a basinal sequence, forming the Saddle Hills Basin. Multiple horizons of anomalous uranium mineralization have been discovered, some of which are described by earlier workers as occurring within flat lying to gently dipping structures, coincidentally paralleling the bedding. In addition, uranium mineralization occurs as structurally controlled, steeply dipping to vertical zones which may connect with the stratabound zones.
Historic Work
Within the Saddle Hills Basin, uranium mineralization was explored during the period 1975 through 1989 by extensive Russian surface and underground exploration that led to the discovery of a number of uranium deposits, now within the Western Prospector licenses and called Gurvanbulag, Mardaigol, Khavar, Dornod Blocks and Ulaan. The principal Dornod deposit is partially located on licenses held by a third party.
The Gurvanbulag deposits were the subject of extensive underground development, including three shafts. The main concrete-lined four-compartment shaft is 525 meters deep. At the 200-metre level, one of 8 levels, there is an estimated 10,000 meters of underground lateral development and stopping in preparation for mining.
Mineralization
The uranium mineralization at Gurvanbulag comprises fracture coating yellow uranophane and fracture, vein and disseminated black pitchblende or coffinite. The predominant host rocks are felsic volcanics, tuffs or volcanic sediments with lesser mineralization in coarse agglomerates or intermediate to mafic volcanics. Coarse grains of pitchblende or coffinite occurring in veins, planar sheets and fractures are more common than disseminated grains.
The difference in mineralogy and host lithology of the uranium mineralization from northeast to southwest in the Saddle Hills basin is noteworthy. It is reflected in the observations by the Russians that the metallurgy of the Gurvanbulag deposits in the southwestern part of the Saddle Hills basin, with metallurgical recoveries better than 90%, is superior to other deposits elsewhere in the basin.
Historic Resources
Within licenses held by Western Prospector, historic resources calculated by the Russians during the period from 1982 through 1989 for five deposit areas aggregate 4.27 million tonnes grading 0.208% U (0.245% U3O8) for a contained 23.0 million pounds U3O8, in their C1 category of resource. In their C2 category of resource an aggregate of 10.8 million tonnes grading 0.12% U (0.14% U3O8) for a contained 32.9 million pounds U3O8 was reported. Where C2 category resources were further sampled with underground ring drilling and bulk sampling, there was an increase in uranium grade along with a reduction in tonnes. In addition, it was demonstrated that P1 category historic resources were upgraded to C2 category resources in consecutive years of major surface drilling programs through increased density of definition drilling.
The following summarizes the source areas of the C1 and C2 category historic resources defined by the Russians.
