Elevate Uranium defines uranium exploration target at Oobagooma

Elevate Uranium (ASX: EL8) has announced a high-grade exploration target for its wholly-owned Oobagooma uranium project in Western Australia.

The target has been defined as 26 to 52 million pounds grading between 650 to 950 parts per million uranium oxide, although it remains conceptual in nature as there has been insufficient exploration to estimate a mineral resource to date.

It was estimated following a detailed review of extensive historical exploration data from Oobagooma, located 75km northeast of Derby in WA’s Kimberley region. Elevate acquired the project in late 2019.

Elevate managing director Murray Hill pointed out that the area has not yet been explored using modern techniques with the last drilling completed in 1983.

However, of the 373 historical drill holes reviewed, 123 identified uranium mineralisation with 47 grading in excess of 1,000 ppm or 0.1% uranium oxide.

Some significant intersections include: 2.2m at 3,581ppm uranium oxide from 47.5m; 2.8m at 2,352 ppm from 46.6m; 1.65m at 3,775 ppm from 53.15m; and 2.45 at 1,870 ppm from 70.65m.

The results identify uranium mineralisation over a 9km strike length with the main mineralisation zone defined over a 4km strike.

“With some excellent grades intersected, we are anticipating a high-grade range,” Mr Hill said.

“We are very encouraged by the potential of this project and look forward to undertaking modern day exploration,” he added.

Process options

With an identified ore depth range of 45 to 120m, Elevate said the project is suitable to open pit mining, a method which could then be fed into the company’s proprietary U-pgrade process plant to “potentially lower capital and operating costs compared to conventional mining methods and could have overall costs comparable to in-situ recovery”.

The company describes its U-pgrade technology as a “disruptive beneficiation process” that can revolutionise surficial uranium processing by reducing capital and operating costs by about 50, thus making lower-grade projects more competitive and financially viable.

Elevate holds uranium assets in both Australia and Namibia. The company changed its name from Marenica Energy in June to reflect its expansion from its original Namibian project.