Elevate Uranium boosts Namibia ‘Koppies’ resource to 20.3Mlb

Elevate Uranium (ASX:EL8) has upgraded by 22% its uranium mineral resource estimates to 20.3Mlb at its Africa-based Koppies Uranium Project in Namibia. 

The company highlighted recent drilling analyses on-site revealed evidence of mineralisation in basement rocks outside of the known target palaeochannel. 

A March-April 2022 drilling program confirmed the mineralisation beyond the palaeochannel on the banks of the channel, towards which Elevate Uranium updated its drill program to strike at greater depths. 

Drilling was a combination of RC, RAB and DDH drilling; including past drilling activities, a total of 8,705m in 992 drill holes has been completed.  The company is also investigating additional mineralisation further beneath the known limits of palaeochannels that underpin the project's exploration strategy.

The results, Elevate Uranium managing director Murray Hill says, could potentially mean Elevate Uranium updates its Namibian uranium mineral resource estimates up from 20.3Mlb yet again later this year. 

A map detailing the location of Elevate Uranium's Koppies target

Company eyeing new East Koppies mineralised area

Changes in drilling strategy in the March-April program that targeted the banks of known palaeochannel led to the company finding evidence for an additional flat-lying uranium deposit some 1.6km east of the main Koppies project target. 

Elevate Uranium suspects the body extends 1km in a northeast-southwest direction at some 400m width; open to the SW and to the NE, between 2m and 16m depth. 

Elevate Uranium notes this is unique in its Erongo district project area and is likely hosted in metasedimentary rock. 

This flat lying body has not been included in the updated resource estimates and may provide a bet of confidence in the company's ability to upgrade its resource further in the relatively near future. 

Consistent mineralisation adjacent to Deep Yellow tenement  

Elevate Uranium's mineral resource, located in the Koppies target, shares its western border with tenements owned by Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL), part of the latter's Tumas project. 

Elevate's final inferred mineral resource estimate includes a number of cut-off grades from 50 parts per million (ppm) to 200ppm U3O8. Uranium minerals on-site the Koppies project are limited to Uranium vanadates, with carnotite the most common encountered. 

The geology of the area is well understood on the back of fifty years of local exploration, and 30km to the north is located the Langer Heinrich uranium mine 75% owned by Paladin Energy and shared with a division of a state-owned Chinese nuclear player CNNC Overseas Uranium Holdings. 

Elevate Uranium's (ASX:EL8) charts over the last six months