Elevate Uranium upgrades Koppies resource base as indicated status hits 78%

Elevate Uranium (ASX: EL8) has announced that 78% of the mineral resource estimate at the Koppies deposit within its project of the same name in Namibia has been upgraded to indicated status.

Located in the central part of the deposit and measuring about 7 kilometres from north to south and 3.5km from east to west, with smaller pods to the west and north, the indicated resource contains 43.6 million pounds of uranium oxide equivalent, believed to be sufficient to support activities that will move the Koppies project towards development.

The upgrade from inferred to indicated, alongside a U-pgrade metallurgical test work program on mineralised samples from the resource, is seen as an important step in de-risking the project.

Continued exploration

Managing director Murray Hill said the company would continue its substantial exploration programs at projects surrounding Koppies.

“The geological knowledge gained at Koppies […] means we consider it likely that we will encounter previously unidentified mineralisation in areas where historical exploration has occurred or where drilling has not been carried out because targeting was based on alternate geological models,” he said.

Koppies is one of the shallowest global uranium resources, with approximately 95% of the total mineral resource being within 18.5m of the surface and 50% within 7m, implying a potential low-cost mining operation that would be beneficial to the overall economics of any future operation.

Hirabeb maiden resource

Elevate has also confirmed a 10.2Mlb maiden uranium resource at the Hirabeb deposit south of Koppies, which has increased the Koppies resource to 66.1Mlb of uranium oxide.

Hirabeb is believed to have a similar mineralisation style and resource depth to Koppies.

It brings the company’s total regional resource base to 112.1Mlb and its global resource base to 160.5Mlb of uranium oxide.

U-pgrade value

Elevate has commenced a staged approach to demonstrating the value of its proprietary U-pgrade beneficiation process on the Koppies resource.

The company has collated bulk samples representative of the proposed mining method to provide the most suitable size distribution for bench-scale testing.

The samples were collected from eight locations across the Koppies resource, with varying lithologies, uranium grades and gangue mineral concentrations.

Bench-scale metallurgical test work will be conducted at a laboratory in Western Australia using all stages of the U-pgrade process and is expected to provide the data required to inform the design of a demonstration plant at Koppies.