The Australian company Star Minerals Limited has signed a binding agreement with Canadian-listed Madison Metals Inc. for a farm-in and joint venture to acquire up to 51% of the Cobra Uranium Project in the Erongo Region.
The Cobra Uranium Project, under EPL 8531, is close to Namibia’s oldest uranium-producing Rossing uranium mine.
Madison Metals has an 85% shareholding in Pennywort Investments Limited, which owns the Cobra Project.
The permit expires on 17 October 2025 and can be extended per the tenement conditions for two more-year periods.
Under the agreement, Star Minerals Limited can spend US$2.425 million over three years on exploration to advance the project in addition to staged progress payments to Madison outlined below.
Cobra Resources, which held the tenements EPL 3524 and 3624, completed most of the fieldwork in 2015.
The uranium mineralisation intersected in selected areas, and drilling was based primarily on reverse circulation drill holes drilled between January and July 2015.
The current seven mineralisation databases for Areas 1 and 3 of the Cobra Project consist of over 3,720 metres of RC drilling from 50 drill holes.
In 2015, Cobra Resources engaged SRK, which derived an estimate of 15.6Mt grading at 260ppm U3O8 for a contained metal total of 9.0Mlbs U3O8.
Most of this cargo is within the Area 3 deposit, which also has a higher U3O8 grade than Area 1. Area 3 comprises 14.65 Mt of Inferred material at 270ppm U3O8 for a contained metal total of 8.6Mlbs U3O8. The smaller Area 1 deposit includes 0.96 Mt of inferred material at 200 U3O8 for a contained metal total of 0.4Mlbs U3O8. When Madison acquired an 85% share in the project in 2022, it completed two areas of surface radiometric over and along strike from Area 1 and Area 3.
Madison approves further drilling on targets along the strike from Area 3, referring to it as the Madison North target.
Star Minerals chairperson Ian Stuart expressed delight in adding the Cobra Uranium Project to their portfolio.
Stuart said they look forward to working with Madison to confirm and upgrade the estimate and test the exciting exploration potential in the area.
He said Star Minerals has in-house expertise in uranium and Namibian exploration experience via Mr Ashley Jones, who will manage the project from here.
According to Stuart, Ashley has considerable experience working in Africa and has resided in Namibia for three years, more recently working on the Letlahakane uranium project in Botswana for five years from 2014 to 2019.
“Star sees enormous potential to upgrade and increase the existing estimates. We are buoyed by excellent long-term fundamentals for uranium and its role as a sustainable and carbon-free energy source for the future,” he said.
The acquisition marks Star Minerals’ entry into the African continent. Before now, Star Minerals has been focusing on the Tumblegum South gold Project and adding value to its highly prospective West Bryah copper-gold Project in Western Australia.
