Uranium explorer Lotus Resources (ASX: LOT) has kicked off its first drilling program at the recently acquired Livingstonia project in Malawi.
Purchased in October, Livingstonia is located 90 kilometres southeast of Lotus’ flagship Kayelekera project and has a historical inferred resource of 8.3 million tonnes at 325 parts per million uranium oxide.
The 30-hole 4,000-metre reverse circulation program is designed to convert the historic resource into a JORC 2012 resource, test potential high-grade extensions as well as some greenfield targets including the Chilumba prospect.
Lotus believes the Livingstonia area has the potential to become a satellite deposit from which material could be transported to feed the proposed Kayelekera processing facility.
Lotus managing director Keith Bowes described the prospectivity at Livingstonia and the surrounding area as “outstanding” and said the Chilumba prospect has a major radiometric anomaly that has never been drill tested.
“To be on the ground just over a month after receiving our Livingstonia exploration licences is an excellent result and testament to our team in Malawi,” he said.
First uranium exploration in more than a decade
Lotus’ drilling campaign marks the first uranium exploration to be undertaken in the Livingstonia area in more than 10 years.
The 4,000m program consists of six holes within the historical resource boundary, 14 holes targeting extensional opportunities that will target resource growth, and 10 holes to follow up on anomalies that may be used as future targeting. These include four holes at the Chilumba prospect, about 10km from Livingstonia.
DFS ongoing at Kayelekera
Lotus’ 85% owned Kayelekera uranium project hosts a current resource of 37.5Mlbs uranium oxide. The mine historically produced about 11Mlb of uranium between 2009 and 2014.
Lotus is currently undertaking a definitive feasibility study to assess the restart of the mothballed mine. The study is anticipated for completion in mid-2022.
In today’s update, the company said assay results from the Kayelekera uranium and Milenje rare earth exploration programs completed in October are still pending. Samples have been received at the laboratories in Johannesburg, South Africa and are currently being processed.
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