Elevate Uranium managing director Murray Hill says the Koppies Project design and construction of a U-pgradeTM demonstration plant will occur during the first half of 2025.
Hill also said the company plans to operate the plant in late 2025.
Meanwhile, Elevate Uranium has sent six tons of uranium ore samples excavated from bulk test pits at the Koppies resource to Perth, Australia, for U-pgradeTM bench-scale metallurgical testwork.
The company expects the results during early 2025.
Elevate Uranium says the results will be used to inform the design of components of the Koppies U-pgradeTM Demonstration Plant.
The company is running a process to identify appropriate engineering, design, and construction firms in Australia to construct the Koppies U-pgradeTM Demonstration Plant.
In a December 9, 2024 update, Elevate Uranium says it is discussing with several engineering firms and expects to award the contract by the end of 2024.
The company intends to construct the plant in Australia, containerise it, and then ship it to Namibia for continuous operation on Koppies resource ore at scale.
The plant is expected to be operating in Namibia late in 2025.
The Hirabeb maiden resource of 10.2 Mlb eU3O8 was estimated and announced to ASX on October 9, 2024.
The current drilling program tests the extent of mineralisation outside of that resource area. The Hirabeb mineralisation is only 25 kilometres from the southern portion of the Koppies resource and is part of the Koppies Uranium Project.
The current program targets basement-hosted mineralisation north and northwest of the primary resource area.
Mineralisation has been intersected 1.2 km north of the resource area with potential for further extensions.
The area northwest of the resource is open, with drilling underway and expected to continue until early 2025.
The Namib IV mineralisation was discovered in 2021. However, further exploration was deferred in favour of the company’s highly successful drilling programs to grow the Koppies’ resources.
Exploration has now recommenced at Namib IV, with the strategy influenced by the experience gained from exploration of the basement-hosted mineralisation encountered at Koppies.
This approach is proving effective at Namib IV, with a large area of continuous mineralisation now identified.
The current drilling program tests the extent of mineralisation by systematically stepping out with drill lines 400 metres apart.
Future infill drilling will be focused on confirming a mineralised polygon to delineate and report a maiden resource during 2025. Namib IV is only 20 kilometres from the southern portion of the Koppies resource and is part of the Koppies Uranium Project.
As additional resources are delineated at Hirabeb and Namib IV, they will add to the total Koppies Uranium Project resource base. The resources may extend the life of the mine or allow an increased production rate at any future mining operation at Koppies.
The Capri tenement is only 25 kilometres from the company’s Marenica Uranium Project.
The latest phase of drilling has focused on the previously identified mineralised area.
It is designed to “close up” the distance between drill lines from 800 to 2,500 metres apart, to nominally 200 metres apart.
This infill drill program will better define the outline of the mineralisation to delineate and report a maiden resource during 2025.
The Marenica Uranium Project is 25 kilometres north of Orano’s Trekkopje Uranium Project and 25 kilometers from the company’s Capri tenement.
Drilling at Marenica commenced during the current quarter and focused on exploration outside the resource area.
The drilling of an exploration target south of the MA7 deposit has identified some encouraging intersections with additional drilling in progress.
