GoviEx Uranium (TSX-V:GXU, OTCQB:GVXXF) Inc, an Africa-focused uranium explorer, said it has completed an initial infill drilling campaign at the Dibwe East deposit in its wholly-owned and permitted Mutanga uranium project in Zambia.
Mutanga comprises three mining permits that cover some 720km2 and contains five deposits: Dibwe, Dibwe East, Mutanga, Gwabe, and Njame.
The project is described as a continuous mineralization from hole to hole and section to section and shows a very close correlation to the current inferred resource interpreted ore boundaries. The average reported grades, after taking into account disequilibrium, is 330 parts per million (ppm) eU3O8.
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The infill drilling campaign was started in May and aimed to upgrade the inferred mineral resources associated with the Dibwe East deposit to an indicated mineral resource for inclusion into a planned feasibility study for the larger Mutanga Project.
According to the company, the Dibwe East deposit currently contains 43.1 metric tonnes (Mt) at an average grade of 304 ppm U3O8 for 28.9 million pounds (Mlb) U3O8, and represents approximately 45% of the total resource tonnage at the Mutanga Project.
A total of 65 holes for 8,060 meters were completed using down-the-hole percussion drilling to an average depth of 124 meters on a 100 x 50-meter grid.
The returned drill results show potential to extend the mineralized zone beyond the initially interpreted ore boundary in some sections.
"The Mutanga project benefits from being a technically straightforward project due to its low-waste stripping ratio and acid consumption and with a low capital efficiency per pound of forecast annual uranium production,” CEO Daniel Major said in the statement.
He continued: “The consistency of ore zones and uranium grade reported from this initial infill drilling campaign underpins our confidence in the upgrading potential of mineral resources from an inferred to an indicated category in the Dibwe East, but also indicates potential to extend the mineralized zone, especially to the southwest, beyond the initially interpreted ore boundary.
In addition to the infill drilling, exploration drilling was completed on three trenches along strike and to the east of Dibwe East, an area that has previously shown anomalous uranium at surface.
GoviEx reports that all three of these trenches reported uranium mineralization, however after applying the disequilibrium factor of 0.67x the reported grades were below the resource cutoff. As much of the area along strike to the east of Dibwe East is not drilled, further exploration is warranted to test the potential for resource extension in that direction.
Moving forward, the uranium exploration firm plans to undertake further work on the disequilibrium factor to assess its potential variability across the mineral resources.
“Based on this very positive result we plan, during 2022, to complete the infill resource drilling Dibwe East as well as upgrade the previously completed process work to a feasibility study level of confidence,” said Major.
“Having two mine permitted projects; Madaouela uranium project in Niger and the Mutanga Project, in Zambia - GoviEx has a strong project pipeline and is well positioned as we see the uranium market price improving toward its projected long-term trend."
Contact the writer at georgia@proactiveinvestors.com
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