Uranium miner Deep Yellow Limited (ASX: DYL) has announced a 121% increase to ore reserve estimates following resource upgrade drilling at its Tumas Discovery in Namibia.
The company reports that the results, which see the Tumas probable ore reserves increase to 68.4Mlb U3O8 at 345ppm (using a 150ppm U3O8 cut off), have achieved the first key milestone of the project’s definitive feasibility study to establish sufficient ore reserves to support a life-of-mine of at least 20 years.
“significant potential remains to grow Tumas through upgrading remaining Inferred Resources and further exploration of Tumas Palaeochannel, with approximately 40% yet to be fully tested”
Address the result, Deep Yellow Managing Director John Borshoff said: “We continue to deliver on what we set out to achieve for the Tumas DFS. We have achieved a very important milestone with the substantial Ore Reserve upgrade that has been announced confirming a long Life of Mine operation that is now possible for the Tumas Project. Importantly, significant potential remains to grow Tumas through upgrading remaining Inferred Resources and further exploration of Tumas Palaeochannel, with approximately 40% yet to be fully tested, providing Deep Yellow with exceptional, additional optionality for optimisation of the DFS, which is expected to be completed in the latter part of CY2022.”
The ore reserve increase was delivered following a five-month resource upgrade drilling program centred around the Tumas 3 and 1 East deposits, completed in August 2021.
Map displaying Tumas deposits over palaeochannelsThe program was comprised of 1,473 holes for a total of 24,942m, and led to an increase in the project’s mineral resource estimate for the combined Tumas 1, 1-East, 2 and 3 deposits with an indicated-category resource of 98.7Mlb U3O8 @ 266ppm (at a 100ppm U3O8 cut off), and an inferred-category resource of 15.3Mlb U3O8 @ 215ppm for a total of 114Mlb U3O8 @ 258ppm.
Deep Yellow has stated that the prospect of an eventual 30-year-plus LOM ‘cannot be discounted’, with 40% of the project’s prospective palaeochannel yet to be fully explored.
Images: Deep Yellow Limited
