ASX-listed Elevate Uranium has announced the intersection of a 13 metre thick zone of mineralisation in granite at the Marenica Uranium Project, identifying a new target style mineralisation outside of the existing resource. Drill hole MAR2500 was one of a number of holes within several kilometres of each other that intersected basement hosted mineralisation.
Elevate Uranium’s Managing Director, Murray Hill, commented: “Mineralisation at the Marenica Uranium Project has typically been intersected in palaeochannels. The Company has now identified another mineralisation style with a large mineralised interval of 13 metres thickness intersected in granite close to surface. This was one of a number of holes in the drilling program completed last month that intersected uranium mineralisation. The team are interpreting the results from that drill program, along with historical drilling in specific areas of the tenement, before planning future drill programs that could add to the current 61 Mlb U3O8 resource. This discovery, in addition to mineralisation intersected in the southeast of the project area will form part of a future drill program. The diversification of our exploration programs over that past 12 months outside of the more traditional palaeochannel hosted style of mineralisation has proven successful. This new style of mineralisation identified at Marenica opens a new search space for us, no longer restricting exploration to palaeochannel uranium deposits”.
Marenica Uranium Project
The Marenica Uranium Project is located 25 kilometres north of Orano’s Trekkopje Uranium Project and only 25 km south-east of the Company’s Capri tenement. Exploration drilling during the quarter tested an array of targets based on interpreted palaeochannel location, radiometrics and detailed geological mapping. Particularly encouraging are a number of mineralised intersections in both pink and white granite, notably MAR2500 that displays an interval of 13 m at 203 eU3O8 ppm, including 3.5 m at 326 ppm eU3O8 (Table 1). Six mineralised intervals greater than 100 ppm U3O8 were intersected in MAR2500 with the deepest intersection at 58.5 m, a depth over double that of holes drilled in this area. A total of 24 m of aggregated mineralisation was intersected in MAR2500.
Several other holes in proximity of MAR2500 also intersected mineralisation, most of which were only drilled to a depth of 28 m, so there is scope that mineralisation may extend deeper than current drill depth. Detailed analysis of all holes drilled as part of the recent program and historical holes will be completed, not only from a mineralisation perspective but also understanding lithological controls.
The full nature and extent of this mineralisation remains unknown but may represent a new style of target for the Company. MAR2500 was drilled near the southeastern margin of a domal feature in the north of the tenement and comprised of complex interactions between differing compositions of granite and marble. The marble is unmineralised but may provide an important rheological and permeability contrast to the mineralised leucocratic granite.
Drilling also intersected mineralisation in palaeochannel in the southeastern portion of the tenement, with further work required to define the limits of the mineralised zone, as well as anomalous intersections throughout the tenement, each relating to a specific geochemical or radiometric target. Due to the variety of targets, drill line spacing ranged from 200 to 1,500 m with holes typically 200 m apart.
The current phase of drilling at Marenica has been completed, with exploration activities moving to detailed field investigation, mapping and interpretation to allow follow up of this target later in the year.