Elevate Uranium accelerates Koppies project in Namibia with triple-rig drilling campaign

Elevate Uranium (ASX: EL8) has three drill rigs on location at its Koppies project in Namibia as the company looks to further expand its knowledge of the resources at the rapidly-growing site.

The rigs are undertaking resource drilling in the Koppies 2 and 4 areas, where a total of 273 drill holes for 7,644 metres are planned to be completed in this program.

Elevate is targeting completion of the program during the March Quarter 2024, with the results to help provide an estimated interim resource for these areas in the next reporting period.

An in-fill program to increase the Koppies resource confidence level from the “inferred” to “indicated” joint ore reserves committee category will commence following the completion of the Koppies 2 and 4 resource expansion drill program.

The results of that program will then be used to underpin the commencement of technical studies.

Multiple mineralisation areas

Resource drilling completed to date has identified multiple areas of open mineralisation on the edges of the Koppies 1, 2, and 3 domains and Elevate will test the potential for these areas to be extensions to the existing mineral resources in those deposits.

Further planned drilling in the area will include testing for an extension of Koppies 3 and the northern section of the tenement, as well as examining potential extensions of Koppies 1.

The company also plans to test potential extensions identified south of Koppies 2 and at Koppies 4.

A total of 645 drill holes for 18,122 metres are planned for these programs.

Significant MRE upgrade

This work will follow up Elevate’s recently-released mineral resource estimate (MRE) that produced a 136% increase in the Koppies resource and a 42% increase in the company’s Namibian resources.

The inferred MRE currently sits at 48 million pounds for the Koppies uranium project, while the company’s total global uranium resources were increased to 142Mlb.

The commercial potential of the Koppies project benefits from its shallow mineralisation, with 95% of the total mineral resource being within approximately 15 metres of the surface and 50% within approximately six metres.

These physical parameters support the potential for a low strip ratio, low-cost mining operation.

Notably, the mineralisation remains open, indicating the potential for further expansion of the mineralised envelope as drilling activities progress.

This upside will be examined by the upcoming expansion program and in particular the work to be undertaken in the area of Koppies 4 and south of Koppies 2.

Drilling program success

The current and planned 2024 work follows the successful Koppies resource drilling program conducted during the December quarter.

A total of 620 holes were drilled for 17,457 metres at Koppies during the quarter, with the results from ten included in the resource update announced in early November.

Data from the remaining holes will now be added to the next update scheduled for March 2024.