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Okapi Resources Limited (ASX: OKR, OTCQB: OKPRF) (Okapi or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has started its extensive field exploration program at the Newnham Lake and Perch Uranium Projects in the Athabasca Basin. The exploration program will consist of prospecting, outcrop, and boulder sampling with potential soil and vegetation sampling to help identify favorable structural scenarios suitable for hosting uranium mineralisation and will utilise the results from the satellite analysis and compilation work received from Axiom Exploration Group to assist exploration efforts in specific areas of interest.
Highlights:
- Surface Exploration has started at the Newnham Lake & Perch Uranium Projects
- Focused on uranium mineralisation potential hosted within Archean Basement rocks
- The aim of the exploration program is to prioritise drill targets for testing in the Athabasca Basin Winter of 2023
Okapi’s Managing Director, Mr Andrew Ferrier said:
“We are excited about our maiden field exploration program in the Athabasca basin. Our properties at Newnham Lake and Perch remain our highest priority, with historical drilling showing anomalous radioactivity within multiple drillholes, favourable lithologies and untested basement hosted potential at a relatively shallow depth. The field program is mainly helicopter supported and plenty of pre-planning work was required to allow us to commence our exploration program. I thank our team and consultants in getting everything organised on time and on schedule.”
Figure 1: Exploration geologists in the field at Newnham Lake
Project Overview - Newnham Lake & Perch Projects
Okapi’s 100% owned Newnham Lake and Perth Projects which straddle the north-eastern margin of the Athabasca Basin. Both Projects consist of 15 mining claims totalling close to 18,500 hectares. The properties are located at the northeast margin of the Athabasca Basin approximately 75 km east-southeast of the hamlet of Stony Rapids and 60 km east of the community of Black Lake, Saskatchewan.
Summer Exploration Program
The initial phase of the Company’s exploration programs involved recently completed satellite image data analysis over the entire Newnham Lake and Perch Projects; the company also completed an extensive data review and summary of all the historical exploration work carried out on the two projects.
The analysis of satellite image data included synthetic aperture radar data (SAR), multispectral Sentinel and Aster data. The data collected was processed, analysed, and interpreted and has generated several target areas that concentrate across east-west structural corridors, and the intersection of those with north-south and northeast-southwest trending faults.
Surface exploration investigations focusing on the relatively under-explored areas that make up the northeastern Priority 1 and Priority 2 areas at Newnham Lake (Figure 2), and the areas north of the unconformity contact in exposed Archean rocks at Perch, has now begun. These areas have been identified as Archean Basement rocks at, or near, the surface that exhibit alteration and oxidation characteristics consistent with potential to host Uranium mineralisation.
Figure 2: Newnham Lake & Perch Projects - Prospecting Areas
Newnham Lake Project
At the Newnham Lake project, there are four areas of interest, not in order of priority, A through D, for the surface exploration program underway a shown in Figure 3. The program is focusing on the edge of the Athabasca Basin, with the goal of identifying areas that may cover basement fault extension and areas with multiple intersecting faults. These target areas are deemed prospective for basement-hosted uranium mineralization:
Zone A is focused on the historically recognized Karen Lake area, containing the Karen Lake Seeps uranium showing. In addition to the multiple intersecting fault zones, there are historical radioactive pegmatitic (more than 10,000 counts per second) and granitic boulders (more than 1000 cps) in the area.
Zones B and C are focused on testing east-west trending fault intersections with north-south to northeast- southwest trending faults that coincide with magnetic lows and local interpreted electromagnetic conductors, testing for surficial expression of those features.
Zone C is also testing the Camp Lake and Cyprian Fault extents on the southern portion of the Newnham Lake property.
Zone D is testing the northern extent of the Cyprian Fault on the property, where it is coincident with magnetic lows, historic radioactive boulders, gravity low anomalies as well as coincident with east-west trending fault intersections. All four zones also show areas of elevated hydrothermal alteration and gossan, interpreted from recent satellite image analysis.
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This article includes content from Okapi Resources Limited , licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
OKR:AU
Boss Set to Ship First U308 from Honeymoon
Highlights
- Startup production exceeding ramp-up schedule per the feasibility study (FS) estimates
- NIMCIX columns 2 and 3 on target for commissioning in Q3 and Q4, respectively in 2024
- Commissioning continues to advance, with key metrics remaining ahead of FS estimates:
- oWellfields continue to average 80 - 100mg/L vs FS estimate of 47mg/L (~100% uplift)
- oIon Exchange loaded resin recoverability remains at 100%
- oResin loading normalising at FS estimate of 27 g/L
- oElution performance exceeding FS estimate at 7 – 9 g/L
- First uranium sale to occur with revenue being received this quarter
- Boss remains highly leveraged to rising uranium price
Boss will now make its first delivery to European nuclear utilities under its existing sales contracts, with revenue to be received in the current quarter.
With NIMCIX Column 1 performing to expectations and construction of Columns 2 and 3 on track for completion in the September and December quarters, 2024 respectively, Boss expects production to total at least ~850,000lbs of U308 by June 30, 2025, in line with its Feasibility Study schedule1.
Boss Managing Director Duncan Craib said:“The start-up phase at Honeymoon is proceeding comfortably to plan, with all the key metrics running in line with, or exceeding, the forecasts contained in the Feasibility Study schedule.
“Construction of the second and third columns is also advancing well, ensuring we are on track to continue increasing our production rates. Total production in FY26 is set to meet or exceed our feasibility study forecasts at 1.63Mlb. The addition of columns 4, 5 and 6 are forecast to further increase the production rate to nameplate capacity of 2.45Mlb/annum by year three.”
Figure 1: Drummed uranium ready for first shipment
Figure 2: Construction of columns 2 and 3 nearing completion to increase Honeymoon's production profile
Production update
Operational focus over the coming months remains on optimisation of the ion exchange, elution, precipitation and drying and packing processes.
Wellfield performance continues to impress, with tenors from individual wellfields into the PLS averaging 80 - 100 mg/L. Honeymoon’s feasibility study assumed PLS grade of 47 mg/L based on results from the project’s previous operation. Boss is managing the grade of uranium being leached to maximise wellfield recoveries.
Consumption of reagents in the wellfields of sulphuric acid and ferric (pH and Eh) are normalising as per FS expectations. The lixiviant chemistry, as proved during the field leach trial, continues to demonstrate superior performance at commercial throughput rates. The increased leach efficiency leads to a more efficient loading on the ion exchange resin, effectively lowering operating costs as less reagents and power are required per drum of uranium.
Stripping of uranium from the loaded resin continues to be virtually 100%, also demonstrating that the ion exchange process is working as designed, resulting in a high-grade concentrated eluate greater than 7-9 g/L.
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Lo Herma ISR Uranium Project, Resource Drilling Funded
HIGHLIGHTS
- Upcoming Q3 resource drilling is fully funded
- Drilling will target expansion and upgrade of the current Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate of 5.71 Mlbs U3O8 at average 630ppm
- Drilling to commence in the coming weeks - starting late July or early August
- Planned rights entitlement offer to all shareholders on the same terms as the recent placement - details to be provided in due course
As previously advised on 2nd of May 2024, the planned 2024 drilling permit at Lo Herma allows for up to 76 drill hole locations including construction of up to 5 groundwater monitoring wells. This next phase of drilling will focus on expanding the resource areas and where possible, upgrading the current mineral resource classification (Table 1). Collection of important data including, hydrogeologic parameters of the mineralised aquifers and collection of rock core samples for metallurgical testing will be also prioritised. GTI intends to mobilise drilling rigs to Lo Herma as soon as the activity is fully permitted which is anticipated to be during late July or early August 2024.
Following completion of the 2024 drill program at Lo Herma, GTI intends to publish an updated mineral resource estimate and exploration target range for the project. The Company expects that the updated mineral resource estimate will support near-term development of a Scoping Study to demonstrate the economic potential of the project.
GTI Executive Director Bruce Lane commented, “We are pleased and excited to have received investor support and funding to continue moving forward with our planned resource expansion drilling at Lo Herma. Matt and the team in Wyoming have put us in a great position to complete the drilling program this quarter, with a revised mineral resource estimate to be rapidly advanced post-drilling. This work prepares GTI for a potential Lo Herma scoping study which we hope to commence later this year on the basis that we can significantly grow the uranium resource estimate to a similar scale to ISR uranium mines currently being constructed or planned in Wyoming at Ur-Energy’s Shirley Basin project & Encore’s Energy’s Gas Hills project.”
FIGURE 1. GTI WYOMING PROJECT LOCATIONS
LO HERMA GEOLOGIC SUMMARY
The Lo Herma project is located on the southern end of the west flank of the Powder River Basin (PRB), a regional asymmetric synclinal basin hosting a sedimentary rock sequence of about 15,000 feet in the deeper portions of the basin. The basin is bounded by the Bighorn Mountains on the west, the Black Hills to the east, and the Casper Arch, Laramie Mountains, and Hartville Uplift along the southern margin. Along the edges of the basin, progressively older sedimentary units outcrop at the surface as you move away from the synclinal axis of the basin.
The target host geology for Lo Herma project is located in and around the contact of the Eocene Wasatch Formation (Wasatch) and the Paleocene Fort Union Formation (Fort Union).
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This article includes content from GTI Energy, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
