Elevate Uranium fully funded for Namibia drive
Elevate Uranium says it has enough funding to complete its Namibian drilling campaigns, advance its U-pgrade beneficiation technology and begin mining studies, after ending the June 2026 quarter with A$28.9m in cash.
The company said the cash balance, down from A$34.0m at the end of March, reflected planned investment in exploration and project advancement rather than funding constraints.
Elevate spent A$4.4m on exploration and evaluation activities during the quarter. A further A$1.1m cash payment relating to its acquisition of an additional interest in the Marenica project was made in July. The company says its remaining cash is enough to complete the U-pgrade pilot plant programme, continue drilling and begin scoping studies on its key Namibian projects.
A significant focus during the quarter was the continued development of the U-pgrade pilot plant in Namibia. The company expanded its in-country technical team, recruiting additional metallurgists and reorganising plant personnel, while managing director Murray Hill provided direct technical oversight as work continued to refine the beneficiation process.
Initial pilot plant results are still targeted for August 2026, although Elevate warned that procurement delays for imported equipment and consumables, along with slower customs processing under Namibia's electronic customs system, could push the results later into the year.
The U-pgrade technology is designed to increase uranium grades before conventional processing, reducing the amount of material that needs treatment. Elevate says the process could lower both capital and operating costs across its Namibian projects. Successful pilot plant results are expected to provide the technical validation needed to advance mining studies.
Elevate also increased its stake in the Marenica uranium project, from 75% to 90%, through two separate transactions.
It has already completed the purchase of an additional 10% interest from Xanthos Mining, through the issue of 4.7 million shares and a cash payment of A$1.1m. A further 5% purchase from Millennium Minerals — involving the settlement of A$3.4m in debt and the issue of another 4.7 million shares — is expected to close in early August.
The increased stake coincided with a 31% expansion of the Marenica Mineral Resource during the quarter, to 52.8 million pounds of uranium oxide (U₃O₈). At its new 90% ownership level, Elevate's attributable resource at Marenica has risen to 47.5 million pounds. Its attributable Namibian uranium inventory now stands at 123.7 million pounds U₃O₈, part of a global attributable resource base of 181 million pounds.
Infill drilling at Marenica continued through the June quarter and into early August, as the company works to convert more Inferred Resources into the higher-confidence Indicated category. That work is expected to underpin another Mineral Resource Estimate update in the second half of 2026, and feed into scoping studies planned for later this year.
Beyond Marenica, Elevate intends to begin scoping studies for both the Marenica and Koppies projects once pilot plant results are in. The studies are expected to set initial development parameters for the two projects. Further drilling at the wider Koppies area and the Hirabeb deposit aims to expand resources and test deeper mineralisation beneath existing palaeochannel deposits.
Research house MST Access said Elevate remains "very comfortably funded" to continue its Namibian work programmes, and that successful demonstration of the U-pgrade technology remains the company's most significant value catalyst.
The research note said positive pilot plant results would validate the process, demonstrate capital and operating cost savings, and help narrow the valuation gap between Elevate and its uranium sector peers.
