Elevate Uranium ramps up drilling operations across three key Namibian projects
Elevate Uranium (ASX: EL8) has stepped up activity at its Namibian operations, with five drilling rigs now active across its three uranium projects.
It has also increased its metallurgical assessments, with 6 tonnes of ore samples collected from its flagship Koppies project on their way to Perth for a test work program utilising the company’s proprietary U-pgrade process.
Ore samples with varying lithologies, uranium grades and gangue minerals will be used in the test work program, with the results of the bench scale program to be used to design a pilot plant.
Project development
Elevate’s increasingly active drilling program in Namibia is currently focused on expanding and increasing the level of certainty around the company’s high-priority projects at Koppies, Hirabeb and Capri.
At Koppies, a trio of rigs is undertaking infill drilling to convert the existing inferred resource to the higher confidence level of an indicated resource.
One rig each has been assigned to Hirabeb and Capri, where they are working on maiden resource delineation and exploration programs.
Each rig typically completes approximately 25 holes per week for a weekly total of 125 holes between the five rigs.
Large strike length
Managing director Murray Hill said this rate of drilling reflects the large strike length of the mineralised envelopes of these projects and the shallow nature of the drill holes.
“Five reverse circulation drill rigs are progressing well on the exploration and in-fill drilling programs, with the aim of increasing the confidence level of the Koppies resource and adding pounds at the other projects,” Mr Hill said.
“We have drilled 1,979 holes for a total of 52,698 metres in the programs on these three projects alone this calendar year, in addition to holes drilled at Koppies prior to the resource update in April.”
The mineralisation at Koppies is very shallow, with approximately 95% of the resource within 18.5m of the surface and 50% within 7m.
Elevate is confident this provides it with a low strip ratio and low-cost mining operation that would be beneficial to the overall economics of any future operation.
‘Important step’
Mr Hill noted that Elevate has achieved some excellent results at Hirabeb, including 15.5m at 599 parts per million (ppm) uranium, 12.0m at 451ppm uranium, 7.5m at 616ppm uranium and 4.0m at 1,198ppm uranium.
“These programs are an important step towards the development of our projects and exploration plans throughout the remainder of 2024,” he said.
Elevate’s aggressive drilling activities in Namibia paid dividends earlier this year when the company recorded a 20% increase in the Koppies JORC inferred mineral resource estimate to 57.8 million pounds.