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http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,21900717-913,00.html


CURNAMONA Energy has had its best-ever uranium drilling results in a sparsely explored area of its Oban uranium project.

The company recorded an intersection of 8.2m averaging 0.08 per cent of uranium oxide (U3O8) at Oban, 100km northwest of Broken Hill inside South Australia.

Curnamona shares jumped 9.3 per cent in response to yesterday's news, closing 14c higher at $1.65.

Chairman Bob Johnson said the result was 50 per cent better than the previous best drilling results.

It was also encouraging as it was in an area where little drilling had been done, about 1km northeast of where the company is proposing to conduct a field trial of in-situ leach mining, he said.

"At this early stage, it appears that we are looking at a northeasterly trending, variably mineralised corridor over 2km long in which the uranium is hosted in very favourable host carbonaceous and pyritic sands," Dr Johnson said.

"Based on current uranium prices of around US$135 per pound, the dollar value of the grade intersected in drill hole CEY097 is approximately $270 per tonne, assuming that the mineralisation is in equilibrium. This gives some idea of the potential value that could be unlocked by further successful drilling in this area.

"The field is wide open, with untested extensions to the known mineralisation to the northeast and southwest of our current drilling."

Dr Johnson said drilling in the gap between CEY097 and the edge of the company's mineral claim about 1km away would continue in the next few weeks