Elevate Uranium (ASX:EL8) has rejected 88% of the original ore mass during the first four stages of pilot-scale testing of its U-pgrade™ process at the Marenica Uranium Project in Namibia.
The company reports that the stages upgraded ore from 89 parts per million (ppm) uranium (U) to 590ppm U, while recovering 79% of the uranium into the feed for the fifth and final stage.
The result represents a sevenfold increase in grade and broadly aligns with bench-scale testing completed in 2013.
Elevate says U-pgrade™ uses five sequential stages: scrubbing, attrition, desliming, calcite flotation, and uranium flotation. The company notes removing most of the barren material before leaching could reduce the size and processing requirements of a future plant.
Managing Director Murray Hill says the fourth stage has also removed calcite, a carbonate mineral that would otherwise prevent the use of acid leaching.
“By removing the calcite, U-pgrade™ produces a feed that can be simply leached in acid at ambient temperature in four to six hours,” Hill says.
“That single outcome fundamentally changes the size, energy demands, operability, and operating costs of a leach plant utilising the U-pgrade™ process.”
The uranium flotation stage was commissioned in August and is undergoing optimisation. Elevate says it expects to report integrated steady-state results from the complete five-stage circuit during the December quarter of 2026.
Historical bench-scale testing produced a final concentrate grading about 5,000ppm uranium oxide. This figure has not yet been replicated at pilot scale, with the fifth-stage result remaining the next major test for the process.
The company says data from the program will support a Marenica Scoping Study scheduled to begin in the March quarter of 2027. Elevate also plans to test ore from its Koppies Uranium Project during the same period.
Marenica hosts an indicated and inferred mineral resource estimate of 134.5 million tonnes @ 180ppm uranium oxide for 52.8 million pounds on a 100% project basis. Elevate holds a 90% interest.
Elevate is a uranium explorer and developer with projects in Namibia and Australia.
Write to France Pinzon at Mining.com.au
Images: Elevate Uranium
