Explorer plans near-Rossing uranium campaign
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Australian-listed West Australian Metals (WME) has been granted approval by Namibian Mines and Energy Minister Erkki Nghimtina to earn a majority stake in the Marinica uranium project and plans to begin an exploration campaign in the not-too-distant future.
In April, the Australian explorer entered into an agreement to earn 80% equity in the Marinica project, located in the same province as the Rossing mine, which supplies seven per cent of the world’s uranium production, by spending N$1,5-million on exploration.
The WME project, which covers 706 km² between the Namibian capital, Windhoek, and the port city of Walvis Bay, comprises the Marinica uranium mineralised palaeochannel, similar in size to the Langer Heinrich palaeochannel, which is 17 km in length and varying from 200 m to 800 m in width.
Previous drilling at Marinica reported uranium mineralisation ranging up to 8,1 metres grading 480 g/t U3O8 at an average depth of four metres.
However, WME CEO Leon Reisgys said in a media statement that past exploration seemed to have been limited and that the company was planning detailed modern exploration to locate mineralisation that might be concealed beneath clay and other cover, both in the Marinica and secondary palaeochannels.
“The regional geology also indicates the potential for concealed hard rock uranium targets in the project area, including Rossing-style mineralisation.”
Reisgys said a major exploration programme to delineate uranium deposits within the project area would start as soon as the Marinica Uranium Project was granted an Environmental Contract by the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism.
“This permitting requirement is well advanced and WME executives will travel to Namibia over the coming weeks to prepare initial work programmes for Marinica,” he said.
“The proposed exploration programme will include radiometric surveying, processing and the interpretation of satellite imagery, geochemical sampling and drilling to define palaeochannels and to ascertain the nature and distribution of uranium mineralisation within the channel sediments.”
Earlier, the company said that Namibia was one of Africa’s stabler countries. “The introduction of the Marinica Project presents WME with the opportunity to identify resources in an area of significant, widespread uranium mineralisation and to evaluate and secure other exploration and mining properties in a country which supports the development of its uranium assets,” it said.