Drill Results Point to World-Class Uranium Deposit in Namibia


Perth, Australia-based Extract Resources recently reported that core drilling and chemical assay analysis of its Rossing South uranium deposit in Namibia
indicate that it may be one of the largest deposits of its kind in the world. (Photos courtesy of Extract Resources)
Australia-based Extract Resources Ltd.—in which Rio Tinto plc is a 15% shareholder— said it expected to appoint engineering consultants in March for a feasibility study of its Rossing South uranium discovery in Namibia. In addition, the company said it expects to have a total project resource of around 200 million lb of uranium oxide for Rossing South within the next five months.

Extract Resources’ Managing Director, Peter McIntyre, said the company had set a target date of August 2009 for the first resource estimate for the deposit’s Zone 2 mineralization. This followed the release in January of an initial Inferred Resource estimate for Zone 1 of Rossing South of 108 million lb of U3O8 at 430 parts per million.

McIntyre said “this estimate was above our upper limit expectations” and is a 50% higher resource grade than for the 30-yearplus existing giant Rossing uranium mine.

Extract has targeted an additional resource of 68.7 to 105.8 million lb for Zone 2 at between 260-300 parts per million for a total resource of above 200 million lb, including Zone 1.

“We will also continue in 2009 to drill out the deposit as some 9-km remains undrilled of the total 15-km strike length of the Rossing South mineralization,” McIntyre said.

“The Zone 1 resource estimate confirmed Rossing South as a world-class uranium discovery and we are confident that the further expected upgrades will propel the project into the world’s top-10 uranium deposits,” he said.

In fact, the company released current chemical assay results from drilling at Rossing South in late March, stating that the results now confirm that “Rossing South is the highest grade granite hosted uranium deposit in Namibia and potentially one of the largest uranium deposits in the world.”

The assay data indicate that reverse circulation drilling in Zone 1 produced results showing mineralized zones ranging from 9 m thick containing 3,678 ppm U3O8 to 78 m thick containing 475 ppm U3O8. Results from drilling in Zone 2 show a 20- m-thick mineralized zone containing 1,483 ppm U3O8 to 30 m containing 1,003 ppm U3O8.

The company said 9 km of the prospective Rossing South stratigraphic trend remain to be explored.

As featured in Womp 2009 Vol 03 - www.womp-int.com