Elevate’s U-pgrade demonstration plant on track for mid-2025

U-pgrade™ demonstration plant on track for completion by mid-2025
Elevate Uranium’s metallurgical team has evaluated plant locations
Drilling operations are ongoing at Namib IV to expand resources

Special report: Elevate Uranium is pushing ahead with design and construction of its U-pgrade demonstration plant to beneficiate ore from the Koppies Uranium Project in Namibia.

Design and construction is expected to be complete by the end of the first half of 2025 in Perth, ahead of transport to Namibia and operations expected to start before the end of the year.

The plant has been designed to evaluate the performance of EL8’s proprietary U-pgrade™ process, which reduces ore mass by up to 95% prior to leaching and provides a potential 50% capex and opex reduction compared to conventional processes.

More specifically, the demonstration plant will confirm whether it can remove gangue waste material and concentrate the uranium into a low-mass, high-grade concentrate.

It is all part of the de-risking strategy as Elevate Uranium (ASX:EL8) prepares U-pgrade™ for commercialisation, with demonstration plant results to guide the design of a full-scale plant.

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Experienced construction contractor

Fremantle Metallurgy was awarded the construction contract in December last year given their experience in design and construction of similar sized demonstration and/or pilot plants for clients ranging from BHP to junior resource companies.

Those plants were constructed in Perth with many freighted overseas for operation.

At this stage, EL8’s plant will undergo factory acceptance testing in Perth, be containerised, shipped to Namibia, re-assembled and used to process at least 60 tonnes of Koppies ore.

EL8 has assembled the largest land position for nuclear fuels in Namibia with Koppies containing 66.1Mlbs of contained U3O8.

About 78% of that (43.6Mlbs) is in the higher confidence indicated category that provides enough geological certainty for mine planning.

Overall resources in Namibia have increased to 112.1Mlbs through the addition of the Hirabeb resource while the company’s global resource base stands at 160.5Mlbs.

The indicated resource is a large continuous area about 7km from north to south and 3.5km east to west in the central area of the Koppies deposit with smaller pods to the west and north.

This continuity is expected to support a potential future mining operation.

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Moving ahead with approvals

EL8 managing director Murray Hill said the company was making significant progress in the design and construction of the demonstration plant with results to inform the development of a full-scale commercial processing plant.

“Our metallurgical team’s recent visit to Namibia was productive and we are moving forward with necessary approvals,” he said.

“We are excited about the potential of this demonstration plant to validate our U-pgrade process for commercialisation of the Koppies uranium project.”

Resource growth

Simultaneously, with construction of the plant, resource growth drilling continues across the Koppies asset at Namib IV.

Namib IV mineralisation was discovered in 2021, however, further exploration was deferred in favour of the company’s highly successful drilling programs to grow the Koppies resource.

Exploration restarted in 2024 with the strategy influenced by the experience gained from exploration of the basement-hosted mineralisation encountered at Koppies.

Additional resources at Namib IV will enhance the overall project and may extend the mine life or increase production rates at any future mining operation at Koppies.

The current drilling program is systematically testing the extent of mineralisation, with future infill drilling aimed at delineating a maiden resource in 2025.

This article was developed in collaboration with Elevate Uranium, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.