CanAlaska Ventures Ltd. -

Free Market News Network

Canadian listed CanAlaska Ventures, which is in process of changing its name to CanAlaska Uranium to reflect the focus of its activities more accurately, has pulled an interesting plum out of the uranium pudding. Last week it announced that agreement had been reached with Mitsubishi Development Pty to explore for uranium on its 100 per cent owned West McArthur project in Canada's Athabasca Basin. Mitsubishi Development is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation in Australia which is involved in thermal and coking coal, but the central fact is that the mighty Mitsubishi has thrashed out an agreement with little CanAlaska over several months and close inspection of the Mitsubishi website indicates that this is its first move into uranium exploration and development.This may, however, be a political move as Peter Dasler, president and chief executive of CanAlaska is quoted as saying, "Mitsubishi Development and its parent company, Mitsubishi Corporation, are significant forces in mineral exploration/development world-wide and their experience in both uranium exploration and marketing provides us with a wealth of resources towards realizing our vision of discovering a uranium mine on the West McArthur project."What is without doubt is that Mitsubishi Corporation is Japan's largest general trading company (sogo shosha) with over 200 bases of operations in approximately 80 countries worldwide. Mitsubishi has long been involved in energy, but the focus seems to have been on oil and gas, coal and alternative power. Mitsubishi takes pride in the fact that when it invests in a business, it shares risk with its partners and adds value to the business by leveraging organizational strength and global networks to procure necessary business resources.In addition, it provides optimal solutions for all stages of business---from development, procurement and production, to logistics and sales. Supporting the realization of these solutions, linking businesses and coordinating customer affiliations are all important Mitsubishi functions. Furthermore the corporation also anticipates trends in the market and society and takes initiatives to develop new business -- hence uranium. CanAlaska will now get the benefit of all this support as it is to continue as operator of the West McArthur project which is located in Saskatchewan approximately 8kms west of the McArthur River uranium mine owned by Cameco, Canada's leading player in the uranium industry. Its current reserves are reckoned at 389,100,000 lbs grading 25% U3O8 so the nearology is more than interesting.The West MacArthur project comprises nine large claim blocks across 359 square kilometres and Mitsubishi can earn a 50 per cent interest by spending C$11 million in cash and exploration expenditure over the next 3.5 years. If all goes well it can then earn a further 10 per cent interest on terms yet to be negotiated. In 2005 and 2006, CanAlaska flew a series of electromagnetic and gravity gradient airborne surveys which identified multiple uranium targets on the property. Follow-up work in 2006 has included ground IP-resistivity surveys, prospecting and initial target definition drilling. Results of drilling in 2 target zones confirmed the depth to unconformity at 810 metres to 830 metres and found the presence of highly-altered clays, both above and below the unconformity, and stringer uranium mineralization. This is what would be expected in the AthabascaBasin as the uranium deposits occur below, across and immediately above the unconformity and the highest grade deposits like McArthur River tend to be just above it. Looking ahead CanAlaska will further delineate the area utilizing geophysics techniques and drill testing will take place during the winter exploration season. Initial drilling on the West McArthur project has already revealed uranium mineralization and significant zones of hydrothermal alteration, indicative of a favourable environment for uranium deposition so it is easy to see why Mitsubishi chose this moment to become involved.Its funding at West McArthur will allow CanAlaska to accelerate exploration in other parts of the Basin and outside it on the Wollaston belt. The latest report states that the company's marine seismic survey has been collecting extensive deep-penetrating multi-channel data in the west and north of the Basin. First pass grid coverage has been completed over the Alberta project and detailed shallow single-channel seismic surveys have also been carried out in the broad area surrounding the uranium mineralization at Stewart Island. Deep seismic survey data is now being collected to finalize winter drill targets. Meanwhile field crews have continued to measure high radiation counts within sedimentary horizons and associated pegmatitic rock units along the trend of the Wollaston belt rocks in the North East project. Grid work is being carried out in several areas, with detailed surface sampling and measurement in preparation for winter drill testing. Should be some interesting results in the months ahead.