Elevate Uranium (ASX:EL8) has discovered a uranium mineralised zone extending continuously over a further 10km to the northeast of its Koppies 2 resource in Namibia.
The company currently has a mineral resource of 20.3 million pounds of uranium at Koppies and has identified that uranium mineralisation extends to the northeast of the Koppies 1 and 2 resources.
At Koppies 1 and 2, the uranium mineralisation is shallow and generally less than 10m below the surface.
The discovery has the potential to substantially expand the Koppies uranium resource. A second drill rig has been mobilised to Koppies to accelerate the drill program.
Speaking to Mining.com.au ahead of the of the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) in Sydney in November where the company will showcase its assets, Managing Director and CEO Murray Hill said Koppies is presenting the company with plenty of opportunities.
“Whilst estimating the maiden resource at Koppies of 20Mlb U3O8 in May 2022 we identified the potential for additional mineralisation beneath and alongside the resource envelope. We have now identified mineralisation over a 10km length outside of the known resource.
“This presents us with the opportunity to significantly expand the resource”
This presents us with the opportunity to significantly expand the resource.”
The CEO added that with the uranium mineralisation mostly within 10m of surface, and being a different style of mineralisation to the known resource, it requires different exploration techniques.
Elevate expects it can apply these exploration techniques to its other tenements in Namibia and potentially discover other resources or extensions to resources.
“Our proprietary U-pgrade beneficiation process is expected to be suitable to this new style of mineralisation, potentially resulting in a 50% reduction in capital and operating costs to develop Koppies.”
U-pgrade is Elevate’s wholly owned patented beneficiation process that was developed on ore from the Marenica Uranium Project. It is a powerful enabler that has allowed the company to capitalise on exploration opportunities as a result of the potential for a much lower project processing cost base.
The trademarked application is a beneficiation process that rejects greater than 95% of the mass of uranium ore by utilising commonly used and well understood beneficiation unit processes, which enables the removal of the non-uranium bearing minerals.
The U-pgrade process provides the potential of a 50% reduction in capex and opex compared with conventional processes. It provides flexibility and optionality in project design and development, and due to the anticipated lower cost of production, potentially allows Elevate to develop a mining operation at lower uranium prices than its peers.
With the company set to attend IMARC next month, Hill notes that it is important for a company like Elevate to engage with current and prospective investors.
“IMARC is an opportunity for Elevate Uranium to tell the great story we have to potential new investors as well as our shareholders, with such large numbers of attendees now beginning to turn their focus to supply of reliable low carbon baseload power in this deepening energy crisis.”
Elevate is a uranium exploration company that has significant resources in Namibia and Australia and is making new discoveries through active exploration programs.
Tenement EPL 6987 (called Koppies) was the first of Elevate’s strategically located tenements in the Namib Desert region of Namibia, to be explored. Exploration and subsequent resource drilling has identified a 20Mlb uranium resource less than 20m in depth.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Elevate Uranium Limited & iStock
