Elevate Uranium to pursue Namib IV discovery with ‘aggressive’ exploration program

The September quarter heralded a discovery at Namib IV during a maiden scout drilling program for Elevate Uranium (ASX: EL8), which also boosted its exploration team with the appointment of Dr Andy Wilde.

A scout reverse circulation drilling program at the company’s Namib IV prospect in Namibia resulted in the discovery of a 17km paleochannel containing uranium mineralisation.

The uranium mineralisation was identified from surface with notable results of 2m at 435 parts per million uranium, 3m at 376ppm uranium, 4m at 387ppm uranium, and 2m at 758ppm uranium.

Elevate managing director Murray Hill said this was only the beginning of the prospect’s potential.

Mr Hill noted that Namib IV was the third tenement in the company’s wider Namib Area project where extensive uranium has been discovered.

The company will undertake further geological interpretation at Namib IV which will feed into planning of the next drilling program.

Oobagooma

Over in Western Australia, Elevate revealed an exploration target for its Oobagooma uranium project, which is 75km northeast of Derby in the Kimberley region.

The conceptual target estimates 26-52 million pounds grading 650-950ppm uranium oxide could be present within the project.

Elevate generated the target from a review of extensive historic exploration data including 373 drill holes, with 123 comprising uranium and 47 grading more than 1,000ppm uranium.

Notable intersections were 2.2m at 3,581ppm uranium from 47.5m, 2.8m at 2,352ppm uranium from 46.6m, and 1.65m at 3,775ppm from 53.15m.

Uranium mineralisation was defined over a 9km distance with a primary mineralised zone of 4km.

Elevate pointed out Oobagooma has not been drilled since 1983 and modern day exploration has not been undertaken at the project.

Exploration manager

In August, Elevate boosted its team with the appointment of Dr Andy Wilde as exploration manager.

Dr Wilde has a wealth of experience as a geologist in the uranium sector and has worked with Paladin Energy (ASX: PDN) and Deep Yellow (ASX: DYL) in Namibia, Australia and Canada.

According to Elevate, Dr Wilde has “vast experience, understanding and knowledge” of calcrete hosted uranium mineralisation contained in paleochannels, which is the geological setting most of the company’s assets are within.

Dr Wilde’s expertise include exploration strategic planning, targeting and management as well as evaluation of mineral projects, due diligence studies, geometallurgy, geochemical surveys and geoscience research.

Namib Area

Also during the September quarter, Elevate unveiled “outstanding results” from an airborne electromagnetic survey over 347sq km of its Namib Area tenements in Namibia.

The survey identified expansive paleochannel systems throughout the area including at the Koppies and Hirabeb prospects as well as Namib IV.

Elevate is Namibia’s largest uranium tenement holder and also owns the Nile 72 Area and Marenica Area projects.

U-pgrade process

The company’s strategy is to bring uranium projects online and apply its proprietary U-pgrade beneficiation process, which it says can materially lower development and operating costs on calcrete hosted uranium projects.

Elevate describes U-pgrade as a potentially industry leading and economically transformational process for upgrading surficial uranium ores.

It works by concentrating the uranium by a factor of 50.

When applied to ore from the Marenica project, the process boosted grade from 93ppm to 5,000ppm – resulting in 98% of the mass rejected prior to leaching.

Elevate says the technology could cut operating and capital costs in half.