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GoviEx Uranium (TSXV: GXU) said on Wednesday it has positive results from metallurgical test work for the Muntanga project in Zambia, which the company is advancing towards the feasibility stage.
The results showed a significant increase in uranium recovery rates compared to those outlined in the 2023 technical report. In particular, the main deposits, Muntanga and Dibbwi East, which account for 80% of the measured and indicated resources, achieved recoveries of 90% or better.
These results, said GoviEx, helped to demonstrate the efficiency of its heap leach process and validate the work completed by the previous project owners. They also raised the level of confidence in the company’s feasibility study, which it expects to complete before year-end.
The tests were carried out at Mintek, in South Africa, involving six-metre sulfuric acid column leaching for each of the six mineralization zones across the Muntanga project, based on new material derived from the 2023 diamond drilling program. The test work was considerably more extensive than the previous work undertaken, which was predominantly limited to two-metre leach columns.
GoviEx noted that the discovery of the Dibbwi East deposit occurred after the previous column test work was completed in 2013. Drilling conducted between 2021 and 2023 increased the total resource of the Dibbwi East deposit by 60% in contained tonnes. This not only expanded the deposit but also extended it into primary mineralization, in addition to the secondary (oxidized) mineralization that had been the focus of earlier test work.
“With high uranium recoveries of 90% or better for the Muntanga and Dibbwi East deposits and overall low acid consumption, the data provides further confidence in the project’s processing design, helping to refine key assumptions and parameters for the upcoming feasibility study,” GoviEx Uranium CEO Daniel Major said in a statement.
The Muntanga project has become GoviEx’s main focus after seeing its mining permits for the Madaouela project in Niger revoked. The Muntanga property encompasses three mining licences plus three exploration licences with a total combined area of 1,226 km².
Two of the mining licences comprising the Muntanga, Dibbwi and Dibbwi East deposits were acquired from Denison Mines in 2016, while the mining licence covering the Njame (north and south) and Gwabi were acquired from AFR a year later.
Across the five deposits, located over a 65 km strike, there are an estimated 42.6 million tonnes in measured and indicated resources at an average grade of 359 ppm uranium oxide (U3O8), containing 33.7 million lb. of U3O8, and 15 million tonnes inferred at 330 ppm U3O8, containing 10.9 million lb. of U3O8.
Shares of GoviEx Uranium surged 11.8% to C$0.095 following the update, taking its market capitalization to C$77.4 million. The stock had plunged to a 52-week low of C$0.045 in August after the company’s setback in Niger.
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