The 425-ha Butterfly Pond property is located on the Great Northern Peninsula of NL, approx. 20 km west of Englee (NTS 12I/10). The property is accessible by helicopter from Pasadena. In the late 1970’s, Cominco Ltd. carried out reconnaissance and detailed surveys in the region specifically targeting uranium. Ground follow-up of an airborne radiometric survey resulted in the discovery of a zone in the northern part of the property, about 1000m by 100m. Uranium mineralization was found in fine grained, pink met-arkose and associated K-spar-quartz-biotite-magnetite pegmatite segregations. Grab samples and small core samples from this area contain up to 1500 ppm U3O8.
Microscopic examination of the samples suggests the uranium minerals to be monazite, a primarily reddish-brown phosphate mineral that contains rare-earth elements, and brannerite. Uranium ores containing brannerite mineralization have been processed in several mines in Australia and several uranium-gold mines in South Africa. Ores in which brannerite is the main uranium mineral have been mined and processed in the Elliot Lake region of Ontario, Canada. Brannerite is present in significant concentrations in many uranium and rare earth element deposits including some of the uranium deposits located in South Australia, the Elkon uranium province in eastern Russia, and in some uranium-gold ores in South Africa.
Source: Butterfly Pond Cominco Assessment File 12I/16/0126 012I_0126.pdf (gov.nl.ca); The Extraction of Uranium from Brannerite, R. Gilligan, AN Nikoloski, Minerals Engineering ISSN: 0892-6875, 2015
