The uranium industry has been one of the hottest areas of the market this year.
In light of this, it is hardly surprising that one ASX uranium stock is charging higher today despite the market being a sea of red.
The uranium stock in question in is Alligator Energy Ltd (ASX: AGE).
In afternoon trade, its shares are up 5% to 6.2 cents. This means that they are now up over 100% since this time last year.
Why is this ASX uranium stock charging higher today?
Investors have been buying the company's shares today after it released an announcement in relation to the Big Lake Uranium Project in the Cooper Basin, South Australia.
According to the release, its inaugural stratigraphic drill program for the Big Lake project is now underway.
The release notes that the Big Lake project is targeting northern extensions of the same Namba, Eyre and Winton sedimentary formations which host the Beverley, Four Mile and Honeymoon In-Situ Recovery (ISR) uranium mining operations in South Australia.
The ASX uranium stock has high hopes for the project. It highlights that it has many attributes of similar global hydrocarbon-related ISR uranium fields. Furthermore, an historical drilling program in the region by a previous company ~16 years ago indicated the presence of uranium in thin bands.
Drilling contractor Wallis Drilling has been engaged to conduct up to 40 aircore holes on 3 to 4 hole fences, with an average depth of 150 metres.
The good news for shareholders is that they may not have to wait long to find out what lies underground. That's because subject to final drilling metres, assays and analysis of the results are expected to be available in either August and September.
After which, management notes that results from this field program will inform a more targeted drilling program focused on the best opportunities to intersect uranium mineralisation within this portion of the Cooper Basin. This is scheduled for either later in 2024 or early 2025.
Commenting on the drilling program, the ASX uranium stock's CEO, Greg Hall, said:
We are very pleased to begin this long-awaited program and are fully appreciative to the Traditional Owners and other Stakeholders that have facilitated access. While at a very early green-field stage of the exploration/resource pipeline, all the signs are there that this has the potential to be a uranium-bearing basin following the Kazakhstan model. This drilling program is the start of our proof-of-concept work.
