Bulk samples will give Elevate a taste of how its beneficiation process works with Koppies material. Pic: Getty Images
Elevate Uranium starts metallurgical testing at Koppies uranium project
Mining
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- Elevate has collected bulk samples from eight test pits at its Koppies uranium project
- Samples will be used to test the company’s proprietary beneficiation process
- U-pgradeTM can concentrate uranium ore by rejecting more than 95% of non-uranium bearing mass
- Results from testing will be used to design the planned pilot plant
Special Report: Elevate Uranium continues to progress its Koppies uranium project in Namibia with the collection of bulk samples for key metallurgical test work.
This follows close on the heels of last month’s resource upgrade at the project, which increased contained uranium by 20% to 57.8Mlbs eU3O8.
About 50% of this resource sits within 7m of the surface, meaning that Elevate Uranium (ASX:EL8) will likely benefit from any potential mining at the project being a low strip ratio and hence low cost operation.
The shallow nature of the mineralisation has also translated to the exceptionally low cost of discovery, which was calculated at about US$0.068/lb ($0.102/lb).
Infill drilling is currently underway to upgrade the inferred resource to the higher confidence indicated category that has enough certainty to enable mine planning.
Metallurgical testing
Representative bulk samples were collected from eight test pits, which highlight large areas of exposed carnotite – a uranium mineral, for the test work.
The samples will be used to test the company’s proprietary U-pgradeTM beneficiation process, which can concentrate uranium by rejecting more than 95% of the non-uranium bearing mass using commonly used and well understood methods.
EL8 noted that the exposed carnotite has positive implications for beneficiation as it is expected to be effectively liberated by the early stages of the U-pgradeTM process.
Samples from the test pits will also be used for the following:
- hardness and abrasion testing;
- confirmation of the ore bulk density for different rock lithologies;
- petrological and petrographic studies to assist in the understanding of the source of the carnotite; and
- mineralogical studies to determine the minerals present and their associations and the expected performance of U-pgradeTM.
“Excavation of test pits is the first stage of planned metallurgical testwork programs using our proprietary U-pgradeTM beneficiation process,” managing director Murray Hill said.
“The shallow depth of the Koppies resource lends itself to collection of samples from test pits, and bulk samples are by far the most representative samples to present to a beneficiation testwork program.”
“Samples have been collected for mineralogy and geological analyses, which will then feed into the bench scale U-pgradeTM beneficiation testwork program.”
“Visual observations of the mineralisation in the test pits are highly encouraging, showing large areas of the exposed yellow uranium mineral, carnotite, which the company expects will be effectively beneficiated using U-pgradeTM.”
“The focus of the U-pgradeTM beneficiation testwork program on samples from the Koppies Uranium Project will be to confirm the anticipated results at bench scale level before preparing for a future U-pgradeTM beneficiation pilot plant.”
Next steps
Metallurgical test work is expected to be completed later this year with results from the bench scale program used to design the pilot plant.
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.
