Deep Yellow appears to have made meaningful progress toward its target of a 30-plus-year life for the Tumas Project, but much of that progress remains potential rather than firmly defined.
According to the company’s November 2023 update titled “Resource Drilling Grows Tumas Towards +30 Year Life of Mine,” Deep Yellow aims to achieve this by systematically expanding the known mineralisation footprint along the Tumas palaeochannel system and converting discoveries into additional resources and reserves.
The company’s stated plan is to undertake near-mine and satellite drilling to define new mineralised zones—such as those identified at S-Bend and Tinkas—and to integrate these into the central Tumas processing plant without significant changes to infrastructure or capital cost.
By progressively upgrading inferred resources into measured and indicated categories, Deep Yellow expects to build sufficient tonnage to extend production beyond the 30 years outlined in its 2023 feasibility study.
At S-Bend, located immediately south of the primary Tumas deposits on Mining Licence 237, Deep Yellow completed a shallow reverse-circulation drilling programme between August and September 2025.
The campaign was designed to test for extensions of the uranium-bearing palaeochannel system and to confirm the continuity of mineralisation within the Tumas South area.
A total of 452 holes were drilled for 3,361 metres, employing 25- to 30-metre-deep holes on 100-metre spacing along north–south lines.
The programme identified four discrete clusters of higher-grade mineralisation within the southern extensions of the channel system.
Notable intersections include 8 metres at 332 ppm eU₃O₈ from 1 metre and 2 metres at 1,217 ppm eU₃O₈ from surface, with about one-third of all holes returning grades above 100 ppm eU₃O₈.
The mineralisation is shallow, flat-lying and laterally continuous, hosted within calcretised valley-fill sediments typical of Namibia’s surficial uranium systems. The S-Bend results confirmed that uranium enrichment continues southward beyond the existing Tumas resource boundary, opening new ground for further delineation drilling.
At Tinkas, situated on Exclusive Prospecting Licence 3496 west of the Tumas mining area, Deep Yellow undertook a follow-up exploration programme from 23 September to 14 October 2025.
The work targeted an airborne radiometric anomaly coinciding with a shallow palaeochannel identified in earlier surveys.
The company drilled 105 reverse-circulation holes totalling 1,137 metres, using 200-metre line spacing and 100-metre drill spacing to test the channel’s width and continuity.
Of these, 28 holes intersected uranium mineralisation exceeding 100 ppm eU₃O₈, averaging 2.9 metres in thickness and 260 ppm eU₃O₈ across the mineralised zone.
The strongest results included 11 metres at 777 ppm eU₃O₈ from surface and 2 metres at 1,273 ppm eU₃O₈ from 11 metres, confirming a shallow palaeochannel that widens westward to depths of about 19 metres.
The drilling confirmed the presence of uranium-bearing calcrete extending the Tumas mineralised system into new ground. Both campaigns were managed by Deep Yellow’s Namibian subsidiary, Reptile Uranium Namibia (Pty) Ltd, using local contractors and downhole gamma logging to calculate equivalent uranium grades.
Together, the S-Bend and Tinkas discoveries strengthen Deep Yellow’s position as one of Namibia’s most active uranium explorers. Both prospects sit within the same palaeochannel system that forms the backbone of Tumas, which already hosts total resources of around 137 million pounds of U₃O₈ and ore reserves of 79.5 million pounds.
The definitive feasibility study completed in 2023 outlined a 30-year mine life producing about 3.6 million pounds of U₃O₈ annually.
Deep Yellow’s stated goal is to push the mine’s life beyond 30 years. The company’s November 2023 update, Resource Drilling Grows Tumas Towards +30-Year Life of Mine, set a target to identify an additional 25 to 30 million pounds of uranium resources to extend the mine’s life.
The company has not yet released updated resource numbers incorporating S-Bend or Tinkas, but both areas are viewed internally as key contributors to this growth target.
Because the mineralisation at both prospects is shallow and laterally continuous, any additional resources can be integrated into the planned central processing circuit without major capital adjustments.
This modular approach—linking satellite pits to a single hub—has already proved successful elsewhere in the Erongo region and supports the company’s vision of developing Tumas as a district-scale uranium operation.
The Tumas Project lies roughly 25 kilometres north of Paladin Energy’s Langer Heinrich mine and shares the same calcrete-hosted geological environment. Deep Yellow is advancing detailed engineering, bulk earthworks, and power and water agreements ahead of construction.
The company, listed on the ASX, NSX, and OTCQX, continues to pursue a dual development strategy to produce more than 10 million pounds of uranium per year from the combined Tumas Project in Namibia and Mulga Rock in Western Australia.
While the S-Bend and Tinkas results remain at the resource-growth stage, they represent tangible steps toward achieving that goal.
If forthcoming drilling confirms additional continuity and tonnage, Tumas could move from a 30-year single-project plan to a multi-decade uranium district—anchoring Namibia’s contribution to the next phase of global nuclear energy demand.
FID postponement
Deep Yellow had initially planned to make a Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Tumas Project in mid-2024, following the completion of the definitive feasibility study in early 2023.
However, the company deferred the decision, citing the need to secure long-term offtake agreements and finalise financing structures under more stable market conditions.
The uranium market remained volatile through 2024, with prices rising but still fluctuating around levels that made project economics sensitive to timing.
Deep Yellow said its priority was to ensure that the FID was underpinned by strong price support and partnership certainty rather than rushing into early construction commitments.
In the meantime, the company channelled its efforts into resource expansion drilling across the wider Tumas corridor—including the S-Bend and Tinkas programmes—and into detailed front-end engineering and design work.
This approach was aimed at maintaining project readiness while improving overall financial robustness ahead of an investment decision.
Deep Yellow has since indicated that the FID is now expected in 2026, subject to uranium market stability, final regulatory clearances, and progress on financing arrangements.
The company maintains that Tumas is construction-ready and remains central to its plan to establish Namibia as the cornerstone of its long-term uranium production strategy.
