Skeleton Coast Uranium has identified priority uranium exploration targets across all five of its licences in Namibia’s Erongo Region. It plans to begin fieldwork on EPL 8617 during the fourth quarter of 2026.
The targets emerged from completing a programme to digitise and reinterpret historical exploration information covering the company’s approximately 610 km² Namibian portfolio.
Skeleton Coast said on Wednesday that consultant Practara had completed the second and final phase of the work, extending the historical data compilation to EPLs 9872 and 9873 after earlier work covered EPLs 8617, 8208 and 9727.
About 140 historical exploration sheets have now been georeferenced and digitised into a single dataset covering the five licences.
The work has allowed Skeleton Coast to identify areas for follow-up exploration using two uranium deposit models — primary leucogranite-associated mineralisation similar to Rössing and Husab, and secondary calcrete-hosted palaeochannel mineralisation similar to Langer Heinrich.
EPL 8617, covering about 10,492 hectares, is the company’s first fieldwork priority.
The licence lies approximately 18km east of the Rössing uranium mine and 17km east of Husab. Skeleton Coast said historical information indicates radiometric anomalies along the Valencia-Khan geological trend that could warrant investigation.
Two areas have been identified for follow-up on the licence: the Valencia-Khan structural corridor for primary uranium mineralisation and a north-trending palaeovalley targeted for potential calcrete-hosted uranium.
The company cautions that the historical information still requires field verification.
Field validation on EPL 8617 is planned to begin in the fourth quarter, subject to Skeleton Coast concluding access agreements with landowners, as the licence covers freehold farmland.
The programme is expected to include scintillometer and spectrometer traverses, geological mapping, radon surveys where appropriate and geochemical sampling. Selected targets could subsequently be investigated through high-resolution airborne surveys.
Targets next to Langer Heinrich
Skeleton Coast has also identified a priority palaeochannel target on EPL 8208, which shares its southern boundary with mining licences hosting the Langer Heinrich uranium mine.
The company digitised information covering about 1,131 historical drillhole positions from the Langer Heinrich district as part of the programme.
Skeleton Coast stressed that those drillholes are outside EPL 8208 and do not constitute evidence of uranium mineralisation within its licence.
The historical information is instead being used to understand the regional geology and provide an exploration analogue for Skeleton Coast’s search for calcrete-hosted uranium.
The company has identified the palaeochannel corridor between the Etusis dome and the Langer Heinrich boundary as its priority secondary uranium target. Interpreted tributaries to the Langer Heinrich palaeochannel system also show elevated historical radiometric responses.
The Etusis dome and Salem granite in the eastern part of EPL 8208 have meanwhile been selected as targets for primary uranium mineralisation.
On EPL 9727, which covers about 12,081 hectares, Skeleton Coast is targeting two different geological settings.
The north-eastern part of the licence, associated with palaeochannel-related cover of the Gawib drainage system, is being targeted for potential calcrete-hosted uranium. In contrast, the south-western area containing the Bloedkoppie granite and associated pegmatites is being targeted for primary mineralisation.
About half of EPL 9727 falls within the Namib-Naukluft National Park.
Environmental approvals outstanding
Targets have also been identified on EPLs 9872 and 9873, which together cover more than 30,500 hectares east of EPL 8617.
Skeleton Coast said these two licences had the least historical exploration coverage in the archive.
The company has identified terrace and palaeovalley cover between two north-east-trending granite belts as its target for secondary uranium mineralisation, while targeting the granite belts themselves for primary mineralisation.
Field exploration on the two licences cannot yet begin because the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism has not granted the environmental clearance certificates required.
Skeleton Coast has meanwhile commissioned Namibian geophysical contractor ASST Namibia to reprocess and reinterpret government airborne magnetic and radiometric data across all five licences.
That work is complete, and the results are now being assembled into a ranked set of airborne uranium targets, which the company says it will release once finalised.
“With the digitisation completed we hold, for the first time, the full historical record of these licences in one georeferenced dataset. With this information, we have generated better exploration targets on each licence under both uranium models, and it is the base on which the reinterpretation of airborne data and this season’s ground work are built,” Skeleton Coast chief executive Nathan Chutas said.
Skeleton Coast’s five Namibian licences cover approximately 60,973 hectares, or 610 km², in the Erongo Region.
