North Shore Uranium is preparing its Rio Puerco uranium project in the Grants uranium district of north-western New Mexico for a drill programme.
The programme, scheduled for the first half of 2026 (H1 2026), will include multiple sections of drill-holes to verify and expand the known mineralisation.
The company has initiated the permitting application process with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the state of New Mexico.
As previously reported, a historical resource estimate for Rio Puerco put the deposit at six million tonnes (mt) grading 0.09% triuranium octoxide (U3O8), equivalent to approximately 11.4 million pounds (mlb) of U3O8.
This estimate was based on drill data collected by Kerr McGee in the 1960s and 1970s.
Through systematic analysis, North Shore has developed a preliminary model of the interpreted uranium mineralisation at Rio Puerco.
The analysis indicates the potential to expand the reported uranium mineralisation beyond the historical resource within the company's claim blocks.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Kerr McGee completed more than 1,000 drill-holes, generating valuable data.
North Shore is confident that this historical work was carried out to a high standard and provides a foundation for future drilling programmes.
The historical data also supports the potential for in-situ recovery (ISR) mining, a cost-effective method for uranium production.
North Shore president and CEO Brooke Clements said: “North Shore’s Rio Puerco project in New Mexico, US, hosts a significant historical uranium resource with excellent upside, including the potential for confirming uranium mineralisation outside of the known historical resource in section 18.
“We look forward to future drill programmes at Rio Puerco, which will be designed to both confirm and expand upon the known uranium minerialisation. The US has recently expressed a strong desire to stimulate domestic uranium production and we are well-positioned to take advantage of that enthusiasm.
"Just yesterday, Cameco and Brookfield Asset Management announced a strategic partnership with the US Government that would support nuclear reactor development in the US and elsewhere.”
Rio Puerco lies at the eastern edge of the Grants uranium district, the largest historic uranium-producing region in the US.
Between 1950 and 2002, mines in the district yielded more than 340mlb of U3O8.
In June, North Shore Uranium signed a binding term sheet with Resurrection Mining to acquire up to an 87.5% stake in the Rio Puerco uranium project in New Mexico.
