Elevate Uranium Limited has increased the mineral resource at its Marenica Uranium Project in Namibia from approximately 40.2 million pounds to 52.8 million pounds of uranium oxide following a major infill drilling programme completed during 2026.
The latest drilling campaign added 12.6 million pounds of contained uranium oxide, representing a 31% increase in contained metal since the company’s February 2026 resource update.
The updated JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate now stands at 45.3 million tonnes grading 180 parts per million uranium oxide (U3O8), positioning Marenica among the larger undeveloped uranium projects in Namibia’s Erongo Region.
Elevate said the latest increase follows the February 2026 resource re-evaluation, which effectively doubled the project grade after the company comprehensively reprocessed historical geological and radiometric datasets.
The company’s total Namibian uranium inventory has now grown to 116 million pounds U3O8, while Elevate’s global uranium resource base stands at approximately 173 million pounds U3O8.
Managing director Murray Hill said Marenica was now advancing steadily toward future feasibility studies as both drilling and metallurgical programmes accelerate simultaneously.
“In February we reported a resource that had essentially doubled in grade following a comprehensive reanalysis of our historical dataset. Now, with targeted infill drilling of the areas we identified as growth targets at the time, we have added a further 12.6 Mlb to bring the total to 52.8 Mlb at a grade of 180 ppm U3O8,” Hill said.
“The resource is growing methodically and with improving confidence.”
The company currently has four drill rigs operating at Marenica as it works to convert inferred resources into indicated resources, which are required to support future financial modelling and feasibility studies.
Bulk samples excavated from multiple zones across the project area are also being processed through Elevate’s Namibian U-pgrade™ pilot plant programme during 2026.
The company said the pilot plant work is expected to generate definitive metallurgical and processing inputs required for future development studies.
Elevate originally developed its proprietary U-pgrade™ beneficiation technology using ore from the Marenica deposit itself, with the current programme now testing material from across the expanded resource footprint.
At a 100 parts per million cut-off grade, the updated resource includes 16.8 million tonnes grading 205 parts per million U3O8 in the indicated category, together with 28.5 million tonnes grading 175 parts per million U3O8 in the inferred category, for a combined 45.3 million tonnes grading 180 parts per million U3O8 containing 52.8 million pounds U3O8.
The resource remains robust across multiple cut-off grades. At a higher 200 parts-per-million cut-off, Marenica still hosts approximately 21.7 million pounds of U3O8 grading 340 parts per million.
Elevate said the Marenica deposit extends approximately nine kilometres north-to-south and up to nine kilometres east-to-west, with mineralisation reaching depths greater than 100 metres in some northern sections of the project.
The uranium mineralisation is hosted within two main geological environments. Palaeochannel calcrete mineralisation contains approximately 38.6 million pounds U3O8, while weathered basement-hosted mineralisation contains roughly 14.2 million pounds U3O8.
According to the company, uranium occurs mainly as carnotite, formed through groundwater precipitation processes similar to those in several other calcrete-hosted uranium systems in Namibia.
Elevate also noted that the nearby Trekkopje uranium project, owned by Orano, advanced to pilot plant stage using comparable geological mineralisation systems.
The updated estimate is based on an extensive drilling database comprising 3,874 drill holes, totalling approximately 89,850 metres, completed by reverse-circulation, air-core, rotary air-blast, and diamond drilling methods.
The company said portions of the deposit have now been drilled at 40-metre by 40-metre spacing, with some higher-confidence zones infilled to 20-metre by 20-metre spacing as Elevate works toward future mine planning and feasibility assessments.
Elevate said the Marenica Project forms part of its broader Central Erongo uranium portfolio alongside the Koppies Project, with both projects supporting a potential district-scale uranium development strategy built around the U-pgrade™ processing technology.
