Mining

Deep Yellow completes drilling at Barking Gecko North with ‘encouraging results’

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By Lorna Nicholas - 
Deep Yellow ASX DYL Nova Joint Venture Barking Gecko uranium Namibia drilling

Deep Yellow and its joint venture partners plan to kick-off a phase two drill program at Nova by early next year.

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Uranium explorer Deep Yellow (ASX: DYL) has finished a phase one follow-up drilling program at the Barking Gecko North prospect within its Nova joint venture in Namibia.

The company kicked-off drilling at Barking Gecko North in early July and has now completed 14-holes for 3,561m.

Since the company provided its last update on the program in August, Deep Yellow had carried out 10-holes for 2,549m.

Of these 10 holes, nine hit uranium mineralisation exceeding 100 parts per million over 1m.

A previously announced standout hole has been extended and now contains 70m at 503ppm uranium across four intervals.

Highlight intervals were 8m at 561ppm uranium from 90m, 17m at 465ppm uranium from 178m, and 21m at 886ppm from 199m.

Other holes contained notable intersections of 14m at 381ppm uranium from 130m, 21m at 611ppm uranium from 151m, 12m at 923ppm uranium from 214m, and 4m at 837ppm uranium from 190m.

Overall, out of the 14-hole program, 13 hit uranium mineralisation.

‘Encouraging results’ warrant further investigation

Deep Yellow said the results from this latest program at Barking Gecko North “remain encouraging” and have confirmed the zone’s prospectivity.

With the completion of drilling, a down hole optical teleview logging program is underway. Structural interpretation of this imagery will be used to better define the main trend of mineralised intrusions.

Additionally, in-house portable XRF assaying of all mineralisation at 1m intervals is being carried out.

From the information at hand, Deep Yellow says the size of the prospective zone containing high-grade and thick uranium appears to be 700m by 200m.

Additional drilling is required to test the mineralisation at depth and to the north and south.

A phase two drilling campaign totalling 3,500m has been planned and will follow-up on these latest results.

The program is scheduled to begin early next year at the latest.

Nova ownership and cost breakdown

Deep Yellow owns 39.5% of the Nova joint venture with Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) holding the same.

Toro Energy’s (ASX: TOE) subsidiary Nova Energy (Africa) has a 15% interest while Sixzone Investments Namibia retains the remaining 6% as a carried interest.

Deep Yellow, JOGMEC and Toro jointly contribute towards exploration expenditure in accordance with their equity holdings in the project.