Elevate eyes Marenica, Koppies build
Elevate Uranium is considering developing its Marenica and Koppies uranium projects in Namibia simultaneously, potentially allowing the company to share refining infrastructure or transport concentrate between the two operations.
Managing director Murray Hill said the company would use separate studies on the projects to determine which should be developed first, or whether both could be advanced at the same time.
“We have two studies running one behind the other and then we will work out from those study outcomes which project is number one, first, and which one will trail behind a little bit, or do we do them both together?” Hill said during an investor webinar on Thursday last week.
“We could be in a luxurious position of having two projects being developed at the same time with concentrate being transported from one to the other or, you know, economies of scale in terms of refinery.”
Marenica will be studied first, with Elevate completing infill drilling aimed at placing at least 30 million pounds of uranium into the indicated resource category.
The company expects an updated Marenica resource estimate within the next few months, which will feed into a scoping or concept study alongside results from its pilot plant.
Elevate increased its interest in Marenica from 75% to 90% this year.
Hill said the company could move directly from a scoping or concept study to a higher-level study, potentially a definitive feasibility study, rather than going through several intermediate stages.
“You have got a resource that indicates you have got a pilot plant. You can go into the next stage,” he said.
“So, we are going to short circuit some of the different stages of the studies that our peers go through.”
Once Marenica material has completed the pilot-plant programme, Elevate intends to put Koppies ore through the same facility.
Hill said experience gained from the Marenica programme should allow the Koppies testing to be completed more quickly, after which the project would move into its own study.
The broader Koppies project contains 76.2 million pounds of uranium across three resources: 55.9 million pounds at Koppies, 10.2 million pounds at Hirabeb and 10.1 million pounds at Namib IV.
Drilling is continuing at Namib IV, where Elevate expects the resource to increase.
Elevate is also continuing pilot-scale testing of its proprietary U-pgrade beneficiation process, which is intended to reduce the amount of material requiring conventional processing.
The company has about A$29 million (N$335.8 million) in cash, which Hill said is sufficient to complete the Marenica study without another capital raising.
