Lotus Resources Ltd (ASX:LOT) has acquired the 6 million pound U3O8 Livingstonia Uranium Project just 90 kilometres from its Kayelekera Uranium Project in Malawi.
LOT acquired the asset for just $25,000.
Livingstonia not only increases LOT’s mineral resource base by 16%, but could also be used as a future satellite operation.
Multiple targets to be drilled
One of the major highlights of the acquisition is the multiple walk-up targets within the Livingstonia area. LOT is already planning an RC drilling program to test several high priority targets.
Broader zones of mineralisation are evident in Livingstonia, however, very little work has been done there, raising the prospect of higher-grade offshoots from the existing resource (JORC Code 2004):
- 8.0 metres at 1,180ppm eU3O8 from 77.4 metres; and
- 3.6 metres at 1,800ppm eU3O8 from 72.5 metres)
“This is an extremely accretive acquisition for Lotus with the potential to increase our global mineral resource by 16% for less than $0.004/lb U3O8,” LOT managing director Keith Bowes said.
“More importantly, we have increased our landholding at the highly prospective, yet poorly explored Livingstonia region, to 187 square kilometres. There are multiple walk-up, drill ready targets across our Livingstonia tenements, including at the boundary of the Livingstonia resource where an airborne radiometric survey indicates mineralisation continues into our existing tenements.
“This area, as well as the high-grade intercepts previously reported, will be the basis of the first phase of exploration which will commence towards the end of this year.
"Other prospective targets, including Livingstonia North and Chilumba, will be tested in future exploration programs. Assuming exploration success, the company will undertake ore sorting test-work on the Livingstonia material in 2022 as part of the process for determining whether Livingstonia could become a future satellite operation for the company.”
About Livingstonia
Located in Northern Malawai, Livingstonia is circa 90 kilometres from LOT’s existing Kayelekera uranium mine and is hosted in the prospective Karoo-equivalent sedimentary sequence, which also hosts the main deposit associated with Kayelekera.
Livingstonia hosts a historical inferred mineral resource of 8.3 million tonnes at 325ppm eU3O8 for 6.0 million pounds of contained U3O8 at a cut-off grade of 150 ppm eU3O8.
The mineral resource estimate (MRE) as shown below, prepared by independent consultants CSA Global in 2011, was reported to the ASX by Resource Star (ASX:RSL) Limited, a former uranium and speciality metals exploration company.
While the former owner did very little work, LOT has recognised that there is exploration potential in several areas around the existing Livingstonia resource, including:
- East of the northern end of the mineral resource outline, where drilling defined excellent broad zones of mineralisation that have not been closed off;
- Along strike from the interpreted NW trending zone of the broad, higher-grade mineralisation defined in the 2010 drilling within the mineral resource outline;
- Within the mineral resource outline where interpretation suggests that earlier drilling did not drill through the full thickness of the host sequence; and
- In the lower grade zone to the south, where sparse drilling indicates potential for defining offshoots of higher-grade mineralisation within the system and within the areas defined as resource potential by CSA Global.
Mineralisation expected to extend
The Livingstonia uranium resource is directly along trend to LOT’s existing Livingstonia North asset and drilling at the northern end of Livingstonia supports a continuation of mineralisation into Livingstonia North.
The airborne radiometric anomaly at Livingstonia is coincident with the resource and this anomaly continues into Livingstonia North.
A parallel radiometric anomaly also exists in Livingstonia North that may indicate additional mineralisation.
With only limited drilling has been undertaken at Livingstonia North, the region is considered highly prospective for additional mineralisation due to both the continuation of the Livingstonia radiometric anomaly and the parallel radiometric anomaly.
What’s next?
LOT will be busy leading into the end of the year and will undertake:
- A ground-based exploration and sampling along the Livingstonia North trend; and
- An RC drill program to test the extensions of the Livingstonia mineral resource and investigate the potential higher-grade zones within the resource boundary.
LOT intends to complete the work required to update the historical Livingstonia MRE to JORC 2012.