Dark Star Minerals (CSE:BATT) is already in talks with potential buyers for the uranium ore from the Cobra North and Khan West projects it is acquiring in Namibia.
Speaking exclusively to Mining.com.au from Vancouver, CEO Marc Branson says the company is engaging with neighbour China National Nuclear Power (SSE:601985), which owns the adjacent Rossing Mine, as well as other majors in the area.
“It’s most likely that we’ll probably start selling some ore to those guys in that area and those projects,” Branson says.
“There have been some early stage discussions of some offtake agreements with some larger players as well.”
Earlier in August, Dark Star inked a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of Critical One’s (CSE:CRTL) interest in the Cobra North and Khan West projects in Namibia, as reported by Mining.com.au.
Drilling so far has outlined over 15 million pounds of uranium, with about 9 million pounds demonstrated to be potentially economic to exploit as well as supported by enough data, and sufficiently well delineated, to be reported as an inferred resource.
Initial exploration indicates the deposits remain open in all directions, which Dark Star says offers substantial potential resource expansion including new discovery zones grading up to 8.5% uranium.
Cobra North and Khan West are located close to operating uranium processing facilities within trucking distance including Rossing, the privately owned Husab Mine and Paladin Energy’s (ASX:PDN) Langer Heinrich Mine.
The Husab Mine, which is owned by Swakop Uranium – a partnership between Namibia and China – is the third largest uranium deposit in the world and China’s single largest investment in Africa.
The Khan West Project already has a granted mining licence covering a tenement that previously hosted the historical Khan Copper Mine and where “high-grade” uranium intrusions have been discovered.
Critical One previously followed up on airborne radiometric anomalies with seven rock-saw trenches, mapping, sampling, and scintillometer and spectrometer readings at Anomaly 5.
Results included a peak individual result of 8.47% uranium and an average across the first 10 assays of 1.33% uranium.
With respect to Dark Star’s Canadian projects, Branson tells this news service there is still more work to be done before the company will look to engage in offtake discussions.
“I think we still have a couple of milestones to reach before we want to start those discussions in earnest,” he says.
Dark Star’s projects in Canada include Ghost Lake in Labrador and Bleasdell in northern Saskatchewan. The 28,575-hectare Ghost Lake Project is located in the Central Mineral Belt, an active uranium region frequented by companies like Atha Energy (TSX-V:SASK) and Paladin.
Branson also points to the potential for some more M&A activity, but says the remainder of 2025 will be largely focused on drilling and hitting milestones towards production.
“We’re always looking. We’re kicking some tires on some stuff right now, but I think the real catalyst for the company in the next six months is going to be results,” he says.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: iStock & Dark Star Minerals
