The update lifted Marenica to 134.5 million tonnes grading 180 parts per million uranium oxide (U3O8) for 52.8 million global contained lb. U3O8, up from 40.2 million lb. reported in February. Global tonnage grew by 35% from 100 million tonnes estimated previously. Marenica is about 250 km northwest of the capital Windhoek.
“The resource is growing methodically and with improving confidence,” Elevate’s Managing Director, Murray Hill, said in a Wednesday news release.
Emerging uranium contender
Elevate is working towards building a district-scale uranium business in Namibia’s Erongo uranium region, which in addition to the 76.2-million-lb. resource at its Koppies project, now brings its total Namibian resource to 129 million pounds. The update gives Elevate one of the larger uranium resource inventories among Namibia-focused juniors. It’s large enough to support development studies but smaller than Bannerman Energy’s (ASX: BMN) Etango, the largest undeveloped uranium project in the country.
The Erongo district is home to the producing uranium mines Rössing, controlled by China National Uranium Corp.; Husab, owned by China General Nuclear; and Paladin Energy’s (ASX, TSX: PDN) Langer Heinrich. The new resource also gives Elevate more pounds to test its U-pgrade technology against a process it says could cut waste before leaching and improve project economics.
Elevate’s Sydney-listed shares gained 6% to A25¢ (C25¢) apiece on Friday. It has a market capitalization of A$111.6 million (C$109.8 million). The stock has traded in a 12-month range of A22¢ to A50¢.
Emerging asset
The resource includes 16.8 million indicated tonnes grading 205 ppm U3O8 for 7.5 million lb., while inferred resources total 117.7 million tonnes at 175 ppm for 45.3 million pounds. Elevate said four rigs are drilling to upgrade inferred resources to indicated, the category it needs for feasibility work.
The latest estimate followed drilling in two target areas flagged in February, when Elevate reworked historical data and said Marenica’s grade had roughly doubled. The new drilling added 12.6 million lb. of U3O8, though the overall grade slipped to 180 ppm from 185 ppm as the model took in lower-grade material.
Elevate owns 75% of Marenica, with private Namibian partners Xanthos Mining and Millennium Minerals holding the rest. That gives it 39.6 million attributable lb. of the updated resource. The company’s Namibian portfolio now totals 116 million lb. attributable U3O8, while its global resource base across Namibia and Australia stands at 173 million lb.
Calcrete – a hard, near-surface layer of soil, sand or gravel cemented by calcium carbonate, usually formed in dry climates as groundwater evaporates and leaves minerals behind – hosts about 73% of the resource, with 98.6 million tonnes grading 180 ppm for 38.6 million pounds. Weathered basement hosts the rest, at 35.8 million tonnes grading 180 ppm for 14.2 million pounds.
Integrated approach
Marenica supplied the original ore samples used to develop the company’s U-pgrade process. Elevate says bench-scale work showed the process could improve ore grades about 50-fold, reject most waste before leaching, strip out acid-consuming minerals and cut capital and operating costs by about half compared with conventional processing.
Those claims, however, still need larger commercial-scale proof. Elevate is running bulk samples from across the updated Marenica resource through its pilot plant in Namibia this year to generate processing data for upcoming planned feasibility studies.
The resource estimate used 3,874 drill holes for 89,850 metres, mainly shallow vertical reverse-circulation holes. The company said mineralization is shallower in the west and thicker in the east, where higher-grade material sits in a palaeochannel system.
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