Gibb River Diamonds is withdrawing from uranium exploration in Namibia after saying it could not establish the status and standing of six exploration licence applications it lodged more than two years ago, ending plans to drill two targets in the Erongo uranium district.
The Australian-listed company is winding up GIB Mining Namibia (Pty) Ltd and withdrawing applications for EPLs 9924, 10131, 10120, 10121, 10122 and 10191, covering a combined 1,827.8 square kilometres in the Erongo and Kunene regions.
The decision follows attempts by Gibb to clarify the position of the applications, which remained ungranted despite the company initially expecting the approval process for its Erongo ground to take about five to six months.
Gibb said in its latest annual report that it is working to wind up its Namibian subsidiary, withdraw outstanding permit applications, and end exploration work in the country. Earlier disclosures show the company sought clarification on the “status and standing” of the permits but could not establish their position.
The withdrawal closes a Namibian uranium venture that began in April 2024, when Gibb started applying for exploration ground before publicly unveiling the portfolio in June of that year.
EPL9924, covering 15.35 km² in Erongo, was pegged on 2 April 2024. Gibb followed on 10 April with applications for EPL10120, covering 700.80 km², EPL10121 at 843.86 km² and EPL10122 at 35.72 km², all in Kunene.
The company lodged its second Erongo application, EPL10131, covering 32.27 km², on 15 April, then completed the portfolio with the 199.80 km² EPL10191 application in Kunene on 2 May. The applications principally targeted nuclear fuel minerals, including uranium.
Gibb’s Erongo entry followed an early 2024 visit to Namibia’s uranium district by executive chairman Jim Richards. The company said the field inspection led directly to the pegging of EPL9924 and EPL10131 and, at the time, it was also looking for additional acquisitions to expand its uranium position.
The two Erongo applications, covering a combined 47.62 km², lie inside the Namib-Naukluft National Park east of Swakopmund, between the C28 and C14 roads.
EPL9924 lies about 110km from Swakopmund, just south of Hotsas, while EPL10131 lies farther east, southeast of Gemsbokwater and close to the park’s eastern boundary.
Although small compared with Gibb’s Kunene applications, the Erongo ground contained the company’s most developed exploration targets.
On EPL9924, Gibb identified the Koppies North prospect, an approximately four-kilometre-wide target immediately north of Elevate Uranium’s Koppies project. Its exploration model was based partly on the possibility that uranium mineralisation identified at Koppies could extend northwards into its application area.
Gibb considered the western part of EPL9924 particularly prospective for palaeochannel-hosted calcrete uranium as well as uranium associated with weathered basement.
Its second major target, Canyon on EPL10131, involved an interpreted palaeovalley stretching for about 11.5km beneath surface cover.
Gibb was searching for concealed calcrete-palaeochannel uranium mineralisation and compared the setting with the Langer Heinrich uranium mine, about 25 km northwest of Canyon. The company believed basement rocks flanking the interpreted palaeovalley could have constrained ancient drainage and helped concentrate uranium-bearing fluids.
Canyon also represented a largely untested target. Gibb said its research found no evidence of previous drilling, soil sampling, or radon-cup exploration over the prospect, and reported no evidence of previous drilling on either EPL9924 or EPL10131.
The company subsequently developed a two-stage programme intended to move the Erongo targets towards drilling.
Initial work included geological mapping, ground-truthing, sampling, radiometric and electromagnetic surveys, and radon-cup programmes before reverse-circulation drilling tested the strongest targets. A second phase of infill drilling would have followed if the first holes returned encouraging uranium mineralisation.
GIB Mining Namibia appointed Namisun Environmental Projects and Development to conduct environmental assessments for the two Erongo applications, with public consultation beginning in June 2024.
The proposed exploration programme included ground and airborne radiometric surveys, electromagnetic work and grab sampling before RC drilling. Diamond drilling was considered unlikely because the principal targets involved calcrete uranium, making RC drilling the preferred method.
In at least one case, the environmental process progressed further than the mining-title process. Namibia’s environmental records show that the proposed exploration programme for EPL9924 subsequently received environmental approval.
Gibb had initially estimated that the process of securing the EPLs and environmental clearances could take approximately five to six months, while acknowledging that the timing ultimately depended on Namibian authorities.
Instead, the licence uncertainty persisted for about two years.
The company’s four Kunene applications were considerably larger, covering about 1,780 km² in total, but remained at an earlier stage of exploration.
EPL10120, EPL10121, EPL10122 and EPL10191 targeted uranium associated with Karoo Formation rocks, with Gibb investigating the potential for roll-front and calcrete-hosted uranium mineralisation.
The company pointed to historical uranium mineralisation at the nearby Engo Valley project, discovered by Gencor during the 1970s, as evidence of the uranium potential of the broader region.
However, Gibb acknowledged that parts of its Kunene ground were remote and rugged, with access requiring four-wheel-drive vehicles and, in some areas, helicopters.
Gibb also recruited Swakopmund-based uranium geologist Nico Scholtz as exploration manager for its Namibian programme.
By early 2026, however, Gibb’s disclosures showed that the Namibian strategy was running into difficulties.
In its March-quarter report released in April, the company continued to classify all six EPLs as applications rather than granted licences.
It said its board considered the “status and standing of these Namibian permits to be uncertain”.
The company later sought clarification on the applications, but said it could not determine their status.
By the June-quarter report released in July, Gibb had decided to leave Namibia.
Gibb finished June 2026 with A$6.74 million in cash, up sharply from A$719,996 a year earlier, after receiving A$7 million as its share of profits from the Neta gold mining joint venture in Western Australia.
Gibb has not cited funding as the reason for its exit from Namibia. Its own disclosures instead establish a sequence in which the company entered Namibia expecting its Erongo permitting process to take months, continued to report all six EPLs as applications nearly two years later, sought clarification over their status and standing and eventually decided to withdraw after saying their position could not be determined.
