Deep Yellow has announced the completion of a major drill program on its Mulga Rock Project (MRP) in the Great Victoria Desert in Western Australia, which consisted of 656 holes totalling 36,647m.
Deep Yellow commenced the drill program to better define reserve/resource variability factors and upgrade the resource base for uranium and targeted critical minerals.
Drilling associated with this program and completed to date by Deep Yellow has been restricted to the Mulga Rock East deposits (Ambassador and Princess). These deposits are richer in critical minerals and uranium and represent the majority of the known mineral resources for the Project, representing up to 20 years of operating life. Consequently, they will be mined before the lower-grade deposits to the west (Emperor and Shogun deposits) in the MRP’s mining schedule.
The completed drill programs will provide data to better define the distribution of the uranium and critical minerals under consideration, provide samples to refine metallurgical recovery options and help finalise a grade control strategy for the project.
Furthermore, the rescheduling of the mining operation which might use a less selective mining approach, has the potential both to increase the available uranium resource and extend the current 15-year life of the project.
A revised Mulga Rock Project Definitive Feasibility Study is expected to commence in Q2 of 2024. This will require the availability of all results, including assays from the resource infill and air core drill program, which are expected in late Q3 to early Q4 of 2023.
These results will underpin an expected uranium and critical minerals resource classification upgrade, with a new Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) expected in Q4 of 2023. The drilling has also provided additional material for metallurgical analysis.
Deep Yellow Managing Director and CEO, John Borshoff, said that the exciting part of the Mulga Rock MRE upgrade will be gaining a better understanding of the critical minerals component of the project, which includes metals such as copper, nickel, cobalt, zinc, and rare earths, particularly neodymium and praseodymium.
“If it is feasible for us to recover these critical minerals, in parallel with the uranium, it presents a strong opportunity to materially enhance project value,” Mr Borshoff said.
“Mulga Rock is an integral project in the growth of Deep Yellow and, combined with our Tumas Project in Namibia, places the company in a very strong position for future success.
“Deep Yellow has global project diversity which is seen as a necessity by off-takers, along with significant production capability across both our advanced projects, which positions Deep Yellow as the best uranium junior globally.
“Over the past five years, we have successfully delivered on our vision to establish a Tier One uranium platform and the next five years is focused on execution to production.”
