Australian uranium exploration company Energy Metals Limited (ASX: EME; Energy Metals or the Company) is pleased to announce an upgrade to the Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for its flagship Bigrlyi Uranium Deposit.
Highlights
- Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) upgraded for the Bigrlyi Uranium and Vanadium Deposit.
- The average mineral resource grade has increased by 19% to 1,530ppm U3O8, while 18% of the resource now reports to the Measured Category with a further 54% of the mineral resource reporting to the Indicated Category.
- The upgraded MRE increases confidence in the resource as Energy Metals undertakes resource extension drilling to grow the deposit.
- Through deposit-wide reinterpretation and improved modelling, the contained resource has increased to 9.66kt U3O8 (21.3Mlbs).
- The MRE is now compliant with JORC (2012) guidelines.
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%).
The upgraded MRE signifies the first time the Company has updated its resource model since 2011, bringing the MRE into compliance with JORC Code 2012 guidelines. The new MRE includes 130 holes drilled in 2011 which were not included in the previous estimation. This combined with improved geological modelling has seen the average grade increase from 1,283ppm U3O8 in 2011 to 1,530ppm U3O8 in 2024, while the contained metal rose marginally from 9.57Kt U3O8 in 2011 to 9.66Kt U3O8 in 2024. The company also carried out a migration and large-scale validation of its geological database in the interim period, with the data now hosted in the Geobank SQL format.
The upgraded MRE and improved geological modelling provided the basis for the Company’s ongoing resource extension drilling, which commenced in July 2024 and is expected to conclude in Q4 CY24, as per the ASX announcement dated 15 July 2024.1 The upgraded MRE was provided by Sydney-based geological consultants H&S Consultants Pty Ltd (HSC), who have been providing MRE consulting services to the Project since 2007. The Project’s Mineral Resources were estimated at various cut-off grades using Multiple Indicator Kriging (MIK) to estimate uranium resources, while Ordinary Kriging (OK) was used to estimate vanadium resources.
