- Maule
Introduction
The Maule property is located 200 kilometres south of Santiago and is readily accessible by paved road from the city of Talca 110 kilometers to the west.
Claims & Ownership
The property consists of pedimentos (exploration concessions), totalling 3,900 hectares in surface area owned 100% by Polar Star.
Property Geology
The Maule property is a sediment hosted U target, the adit at La Mina cross cutting a series of generally gray reduced argillaceous, carbonaceous and pyritic limestone with inter-bedded carbonaceous sandstones and fossiliferous dolomites. This sequence is reportedly of Miocene – Pliocene age and is overlain disconformably by an oxidized sequence of intermediate to acid epiclastic volcanic sediments and conglomerates of Pliocene age sourced from a series of nearby Paleocene volcanoes and calderas.
Mineralization
The acid members of the upper sequence are anomalous in uranium in the 10-25 ppm range. Anomalous uranium to 50 ppm is also present in the underlying 50-100m of reduced carbonates, with highs at the La Mina adit opening. The strike extension of the ‘Mine’ zone ie carbonaceous and pyritic limestone can be picked up in the main Maule valley road 2 km north of the Mine. Here the section is also uraniferous and produced peak values to 200 ppm U (0.4-0.5 lbs).
Exploration History
In early 1900’s iron ore in the form of hematite, magnetite and pyrite was mined from an adit and concentrated on site at La Mina. No production or grade figures are availably from this period. In 1975 government geologists Fortin and Perez report radioactive zones from within the mine ranging from 0.05 – 0.33% U3O8. The mine workings were flooded when visited the prospect area in April and May 2007.
TopResource Potential
The property is still at an exploration stage, too early even to document a geological resource. The size and geological characteristics of the system however, can be compared favourably with similar carbonate hosted deposits in the Toledo limestone of the Grants District, New Mexico which has produced deposits in the range of 0.5-1.5 million pounds at average grades of 0.3-0.5% U3O8.
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