Elevate Uranium’s strategic drilling pays off with 20% resource boost at Namibian project
With multiple rigs working hard in its Namibian licences, Elevate Uranium (ASX: EL8) is clearly putting its money into creating shareholder value.
In announcing its quarterly report for the financial period ended 31 March, Elevate revealed it had invested $1,557,920 in exploration during the term.
At its flagship Koppies project, the company had three drill rigs in the field conducting a successful infill program aimed at converting the inferred resource to the indicated category, completing 967 holes for 24,405 metres.
The company’s strategy is clearly paying off, with Elevate announcing a 20% increase in the JORC-inferred mineral resource estimate at Koppies to 57 million pounds.
This lifted the company’s Namibian uranium mineral resources by 10% to 103.8Mlb and its global resources to 152.2Mlb.
The company also drilled 241 holes for 5,341m at other tenements in the region.
‘Bright light’
Koppies is considered a bright light in Namibia’s ever-growing uranium sector.
The nation is the fourth-largest uranium producer in the world, responsible for 10% of the world’s output.
The mining industry makes up a considerable portion of the Namibian economy, consisting of approximately 10% of its GDP and 50% of its total exports.
Low-cost development
The shallow deposition of the mineralisation at Koppies makes it a strong candidate to add to that production.
Approximately 95% of the resource sits within 18.5m of the surface and 50% of the resource within 7m of the surface.
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.
In its quarterly, Elevate noted that its Namibian licence has been renewed by the Ministry of Mines & Energy and is just awaiting the renewal of the Environmental Clearance Certificate by the Ministry of Environment Forestry & Tourism, in order to endorse the licence and transfer it to “active” status.
U-pgrade program
Elevate is also using its own specialist technology to take advantage of its Namibian opportunity.
It is planning to utilise its unique U-pgrade beneficiation process developed for testing of the uranium mineralisation at its Marenica project.
Elevate believes the similarity of mineralisation at Koppies and Marenica means the U-pgrade technology will be able to successfully beneficiate the mineralisation at Koppies.
It is now preparing to undertake a detailed metallurgical test work program on bulk Koppies samples.
Under this program, samples with varying lithologies, uranium grades and gangue minerals, will be collected and freighted to Perth for the program in the second quarter of 2024.