The deployment of Fleet Area Applied sciences’ ExoSphere platform to picture the subsurface construction of the Fermi Exploration Ltd-owned Perch River undertaking in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin helps construct confidence in a brand new high-priority exploration hall, in accordance with the most recent launch from the expertise firm.
Perch River is an early-stage, extremely potential exploration undertaking located within the Athabasca Basin, an space globally recognised for its structurally-complex mineralising techniques, with uranium mineralisation typically hosted inside fault buildings, but in addition on the unconformity between cratonic basement and youthful sandstones, giving rise to their title: “unconformity-related uranium deposits”. For such difficult targets, early geochemical vectors and refined alteration halos are sometimes the primary indicators of main discoveries.
In 2025, Fermi deployed Fleet Area Applied sciences’ ExoSphere platform to picture the subsurface construction of the Perch River undertaking, the place earlier soil and radon sampling had outlined an space of anomalous uranium, nickel, lead isotopes, uncommon earth parts in soil, alongside domestically elevated radon. This sampling was adopted in early 2025 by a mixed magnetic and gravity survey, which indicated the presence of a possible fault construction in a structurally-complex location.
With conventional line-based geophysics precluded because of the presence of a 100-m-wide river inside the goal space, the modularised, extremely versatile multiphysics surveys enabled by ExoSphere recognized a deep low-velocity zone, termed by Fermi because the “Rapids Fault System”, which was used to refine drill concentrating on given its potential as a migration pathway for uranium-bearing hydrothermal fluids, Fleet Area defined.
Leveraging ExoSphere’s real-time 3D imaging of the key structural zone, drill gap PR25_04A was designed to check the western extent of the low-velocity zone – intersecting a 100-m interval (290-390 m downhole depth) containing intense alteration and strongly radiogenic lead isotope signatures per these noticed adjoining to uranium mineralisation within the Athabasca Basin. The extraordinary alteration seen in a number of intervals between 287.9 m to 322.5 m downhole in PR25_04A is characterised by pervasive chlorite-hematite alteration and accompanied by intense shearing, fracturing and brecciation. These options point out a big structural and hydrothermal overprint, per deformation and fluid motion alongside close by fault zones – a typical fashion of alteration of each mineralised and barren zones in unconformity-related uranium techniques.
Moreover, outcomes of as much as 242.8 (²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb) and 0.15 (²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb) point out a powerful radiogenic lead signature sometimes related to uranium mineralisation inside a serious fault construction, it famous. The anomalous outcomes lie inside the ExoSphere-identified low-velocity zone, additional validating the Rapids Fault System as the important thing structural function governing fluid move and alteration on the property.
It defined: “Unconformity-related uranium deposits are traditionally difficult to detect as a consequence of their slender geometries, deep settings and irregular alteration techniques. Deployment of ExoSphere’s passive seismic surveys revealed: a 400-m-deep, subvertical low-velocity hall, coincident with prior soil geochemistry anomalies and proximal to the Font du Lac Fault. The survey additionally hinted on the structural complexity of the realm, additional boosting confidence within the mannequin.
This structural structure supplied vital insights for drill concentrating on, serving to to information gap PR25_04A into the zone now confirmed to host lead isotope outcomes and alteration typical in unconformity-related uranium techniques, in accordance with the corporate.
“Agile geoscience is essentially reshaping how the world discovers and develops the sources wanted for future industries and ample clear vitality,” Flavia Tata Nardini, CEO and co-Founding father of Fleet Area Applied sciences, stated. “By delivering real-time, 3D subsurface intelligence in a few of the world’s most advanced geological environments, ExoSphere helps to establish vital buildings earlier, scale back uncertainty quicker and make extra assured selections with much less environmental impression.”
By integrating ExoSphere ANT information with geochemical assays, mineralogy, airborne geophysics and structural observations, Fermi Exploration has elevated its confidence within the Rapids Fault System as a high-priority exploration hall, with additional work pending – enormously enhancing future concentrating on actions in a structurally-complex geological atmosphere.
Tata Nardini added: “This strategy not solely accelerates the trail to discovery in tier-one mineral districts just like the Athabasca Basin, but in addition strengthens the resilience of worldwide mineral provide chains at a time when safe entry to uranium and different strategic sources is more and more important for clear vitality techniques and future applied sciences.”
By accelerating the identification of deep, structural targets, ExoSphere continues to supply explorers in advanced geological environments with a speedy, scalable and environmentally low-impact pathway to scale back uncertainty and enhance drill concentrating on confidence at scale.
