Monday, 15 October, 2007

by edited announcement
West Australian business news

Perth-based uranium explorer Atom Energy Ltd has finalised the acquisition of seven uranium exploration licences in the Northern Territory, the company has announced.  

The full text of a company announcement is pasted below

Uranium exploration company Atom Energy Limited (ASX: AXY, "Atom") is pleased to confirm it has finalised the previously announced acquisition of new projects in the Northern Territory.

The Tenement Acquisition Agreement was executed on 12 October 2007 and covers seven exploration licences in the Tennant Creek and Alice Springs regions. In total the acquired tenements cover a further 8,100km2 of prospective ground.

Atom Energy Managing Director, Mr David Hamlyn, said that the Company was very pleased to expand Atom's footprint in the Territory in such a substantial manner, so soon after listing.

"The projects we have acquired are excellent early stage exploration properties. By acquiring the tenements at this stage, we can now effectively carry out a combined exploration program over all of our early stage projects. This will lead to substantial benefits for our exploration program."

Exploration Update - Cleo's Uranium Project

Atom Energy is also pleased to announce it will commence its inaugural drilling program at Cleo's Uranium Project in the next fortnight, pending final drill approvals from the Department of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines. The drill rig is currently mobilising to site. A 6000m program of reverse circulation drilling will be carried out at Cleo's to examine extensions to the known mineralisation at the Twin and Dam deposits and to test several of the ten defined anomalies in the project area.

Infill drilling will also be undertaken within the Twin and Dam areas to assist with validation of historic drilling completed on the deposits in the 1980s to assist with the JORC compliant resource estimation currently in progress. Coffey Mining has been reviewing the extensive existing drill data and working on a JORC compliant resource for the Twin and Dam mineralisation since July 2007.

Coffey Mining's review of the drilling information confirms the presence of significant mineralisation at Twin and Dam. Some difficulties in converting parts of the historical drill log data to modern standards have been encountered, delaying completion of a robust JORC compliant resource estimate. The drilling undertaken to the then standards of the day did not extend to some factors required for a modern JORC estimate. Atom Energy will therefore work with Coffey Mining to utilise the block modelling carried out to date to complete confirmatory infill and extension drilling to facilitate JORC compliant resources for the significant mineralisation present at the Cleo's deposits.