Australian uranium exploration company Energy Metals Limited (ASX: EME; Energy Metals or the Company) is pleased to announce more outstanding results from its resource extension drilling campaign at the Bigrlyi Project.
Highlights
- Multiple drillholes strike high-grade uranium mineralisation at the A2, A4, and A15 subdeposits.
- All three sub-deposits delivered outstanding results in excess of 1% eU3O8.
- BRC2430 returned 5.1m at 4,500ppm eU3O8 (with a maximum of 14,500ppm eU3O8) from 129m depth at the A2 sub-deposit.
- BRD2415 returned 5.0m at 3,400ppm eU3O8 at the A4 sub-deposit.
- BRC2428 returned 1.1m at 8,600ppm eU3O8 (with a maximum of 21,200ppm eU3O8) from 129m depth at the A15 sub-deposit.
- The 2024 drilling program has now concluded with all samples delivered to the laboratory and chemical assays in progress.
- Equivalent U3O8 concentrations (eU3O8) have been calculated from downhole gamma surveys.
Located in the Ngalia Basin – approximately 350km northwest of Alice Springs, the Project is classified as a sandstone-hosted uranium and vanadium deposit, occurring within the sub-vertical Mt Eclipse sandstone, which contains a sequence of medium-to-coarse grained felspathic sandstones. The Project is a joint venture (JV) between Energy Metals (72.4%), NT Uranium (20.8%), and Noble Investments (6.8%).
In July 2024, Energy Metals commenced its drilling campaign to grow the uranium resource at Bigrlyi, which is currently 6.32Mt at an average grade of 1,530ppm for 9.66Kt (21.3 Mlbs) contained U3O8 using a 500ppm cut-off1 . The MRE comprises 18.2% Measured Resource, 54.3% Indicated Resource, with the remaining 27.5% classified as Inferred Resource.
Commenting on the drilling results, Managing Director Shubiao Tao said:
“The drilling results at Bigrlyi have been outstanding this year, with grades from the A2, A4, and A15 sub-deposits all exceeding 500 ppm. More importantly, all sub-deposits returned a high-grade result over 1% eU3O8. These results not only confirm the continuity of the Bigrlyi deposits but also boost our confidence in the potential for further resource growth at Bigrlyi”.
The Company has completed 11,055m of RC and diamond drilling in 2024, targeting three subdeposits with good potential for resource growth. These sub-deposits, known as A2, A4, and A15, are shown on the location map above (see Figure 1). Selected drilling samples have been submitted to a commercial laboratory in Adelaide for chemical assays, with the analyses currently in progress.
The completed drillholes have been surveyed with calibrated downhole gamma probes which can be used to calculate an equivalent U3O8 concentration (eU3O8) based on the downhole gamma response. This is a widely used technique in uranium exploration which provides rapid results with good levels of precision and accuracy provided uranium radioactive daughter decay products are all in secular equilibrium, which is known to be the case at Bigrlyi. It should be noted that the model of gamma probe used at Bigrlyi may become over-saturated in zones of very high radioactivity (>1% eU3O8) potentially leading to under-estimation of eU3O8 grade in these zones. Chemical assays of drill core or drill chips are utilised as a validation method; however, because of the penetrative nature of gamma rays, eU3O8 values relate to a larger sample volume than chemical assays and are often considered more representative.
Outstanding results were delivered from all three sub-deposits, with drillholes regularly exceeding 10,000ppm (1%) eU3O8. Intersections reported include BRC2430, an RC hole in the centre of the A2 subdeposit, which returned 5.1m at 4,500ppm eU3O8 from 129.1m downhole. This includes a highgrade core of 0.6m at 12,600ppm eU3O8 from a depth of 129.7m, with the true width of the full intersection estimated to be 4.1m. This ranks in the top five best intersections recorded at A2 since its discovery.
