Elevate Uranium CEO Murray Hill says they made four discoveries in four years.
Hill told Stockhead’s columnist Barry FitzGerald that Elevate Uranium did not buy projects in Namibia, unlike other companies.
“We’ve made four discoveries in four years in Namibia,” Hill said.
Elevate Uranium’s flagship projects in Namibia are Koppies, Hairabeb, Namib IV and Marenica, which are included in 11 active tenements covering 3,089 square kilometres.
The company used historical maps and reports from activities undertaken by General Mining Union Corporation Limited in the 1970s, during which extensive fieldwork identified exploration targets.
Most of these exploration targets are located east of the known deposits, also discovered by General Mining. Groundproofing work completed by Elevate Uranium confirmed the potential of General Mining’s exploration targets and identified additional targets.
In the late 1970s, following the discovery of Langer Heinrich, General Mining moved all exploration activities to Langer Heinrich.
It later exited the country without completing a follow-up exploration of the identified targets.
Elevate Uranium has two uranium exploration projects: the Namib Project Area and the Central Erongo Project Area.
At the Marenica Uranium Project, the company has a large inferred uranium resource of 61 million pounds.
At the Koppies Uranium Project, the company has an inferred uranium resource of 57.8 million pounds.
Elevate Uranium drilled the first hole at Koppies (EPL 6987) in July 2019.
The company determined that Koppies 1, 2, 3 and 4 are a continuous zone of mineralisation over 20 kilometres.
Koppies is one of the shallowest uranium resources globally, and the diagram shows the near-surface nature of the Koppies deposit, with approximately 95% of the total mineral resource being within 18.5 metres of the surface and 50% of the resource within 7 metres of the surface.
These parameters imply a potential low strip ratio and low-cost mining operation, which would benefit the overall economics of any future operation.
Quarterly activities report for March 2024 says that the Koppies mineral resource estimate had increased by 20% to 57.8 Mlb U3O8.
During the quarter, the company had three drill rigs working on an infill program at Koppies to convert the JORC Inferred resource to the JORC Indicated category.
At Koppies, 967 holes for 24,405 metres were completed during the quarter.
Two other drill rigs carried out exploration activities on the company’s other Namibian projects and drilled 241 holes for 5,341 metres during the quarter.
Elevate Uranium announced a new uranium discovery from its maiden scout RC drilling program at Hairabeb (EPL 7278) on 21 July 2020.
Hairabeb is the second of Marenica’s tenements in the Namib Project Area to be explored.
With an area of 730 km2, Hairabeb is Marenica’s largest tenement in Namibia, 15 times the location of the Koppies tenement.
Tenement EPL 7662, called Namib IV, adjoins and is located northeast of Hairabeb and southwest of Koppies.
Elevate Uranium’s 75%-owned Marenica Uranium Project under Mineral Deposit Retention Licence 3287 covers 321 square kilometres.
Elevate Uranium’s wholly owned tenement EPL 7508, called Capri, is 20 kilometres northwest of the Marenica Uranium Project.
Elevate Uranium’s portfolio contains uranium mineralisation suitable for processing via its proprietary U-pgrade™ beneficiation process.
A study on the Marenica Uranium Project indicated that U-pgrade™ could materially lower development and operating costs on calcrete-hosted uranium projects.
U-pgrade™ is potentially an industry-leading and economically transformational beneficiation process for upgrading surficial uranium ores.
This breakthrough process was developed on ore from Elevate Uranium’s Marenica Uranium Project in Namibia, and subsequently, testwork was undertaken on ore samples from several other uranium resources.
Hill said that in Namibia, one gets a provisional license, and then, in 12 months, one gets an environment of clearance.
“Once you get the environmental clearance, you will get your full license. Once you get your license, you write to the minister to say we will drill these holes,” he said.
According to Hill, one does not need a response, unlike in Australia, where one must be approved before drilling a hole.
“The process is quite lengthy and arduous. In Namibia, however, it’s a straightforward process that works effectively,” he explained.
Hill said they could develop the Koppies project and projects around it within tracking distance.
“You could produce a concentrate from those and bring those into a centre of gravity operation sitting at Koppies, where you’ve got a leaching refinery,” he said.
Hill said in November 2023, they were at 20 million pounds but have doubled this to 58 million pounds.
He said mineralisation is spread over 20 kilometres, and 50% of the ore sits within about seven metres of the surface.
“It’s a shallow deposit with very low strip ratios and expected low mining costs. The grade is 195 parts per million, which is okay in that part of the world,” he explained.
According to Hill, when he visited Namibia, he saw just yellow everywhere in the pit that was being dug.
“The mineral is a beautiful yellow colour and was sitting on the surface of the shaft. It’s on the surface. That means that our beneficiation process will recover that uranium very quickly,” he said.
Hill added that looking at a pit was exciting, ‘all you see is beautiful yellow’.
He explained that it is a different style of mineralisation from what they were initially looking for.
According to Hill, Elevate Uranium will likely run a pilot plant next year to prove the upgrade process before conducting any study.
He said the best thing the company can do is prove the upgrade.
“We love the idea of an upgrade. It sounds like a fantastic story, but let’s have some proof. So that’s what we want to do. We want to run a pilot plant and then run a study off the back of that,” Hill said.
He said Namibia has a strong mining history and strong support for uranium mining.
“That also means it’s an excellent jurisdiction for us. That’s the prominent place to be,” Hill said.
An exploration drilling program was undertaken at the Capri Uranium Project early in the year, following up on airborne electromagnetic and radiometric surveys, which identified extensive and prospective palaeochannels.
The drill program discovered uranium mineralisation over a strike length of 16 kilometres.
The company has identified multiple additional exploration targets at Capri, leading to the design of future exploration programs to explore these targets.
However, before this can commence, the company is working through a new land access process introduced by Namibian authorities.
