Elevate Uranium has achieved a 79% uranium recovery rate from the first four stages of its U-pgrade™ pilot plant at the Marenica Uranium Project in Namibia, as the company advances testing of its proprietary beneficiation process.
The company said the first four stages of the five-stage pilot plant rejected about 88% of the original ore mass while increasing the uranium grade from 89 parts per million (ppm) to 590 ppm.
The results represent a seven-fold increase in uranium grade and are broadly in line with the design basis and historical bench-scale testing undertaken in 2013.
Elevate Uranium Managing Director Murray Hill said all five stages of the pilot plant are now operating on ore from Marenica, with optimisation work continuing across the circuit.
“All five stages of the pilot plant are now operating on ore from Elevate’s Marenica Uranium Project. The pilot plant is rejecting 88% of the ore mass and thereby upgrading the ore from 89 ppm to 590 ppm, before it reaches the final concentration stage, which is in line with historical bench-scale results,” Hill said.
He said the seven-fold upgrade achieved through stages one to four was consistent with historical testing, which subsequently achieved a further six- to eight-fold increase in uranium grade during the fifth stage.
The fourth stage of the pilot process, which involves calcite flotation, has also successfully removed carbonate minerals that would otherwise increase acid consumption during uranium leaching.
According to Elevate, removing calcite allows the upgraded material to undergo a simpler acid-leaching process at ambient temperature over four to six hours, potentially reducing the size, energy requirements and operating costs of a conventional leach plant.
“By removing the calcite, U-pgrade™ produces a feed that can be simply leached in acid at ambient temperature in four to six hours,” Hill said.
“That single outcome fundamentally changes the size, energy demands, operability and operating costs of a leach plant utilising the U-pgrade™ process, which is a major structural advantage we have regardless of the final concentrate grade.”
The company said the fifth and final stage, uranium flotation, remains under optimisation.
Historical bench-scale testing showed that the stage could deliver a further six- to eight-fold increase in uranium grade, potentially producing a final concentrate of approximately 4,240 ppm uranium, equivalent to about 5,000 ppm U₃O₈.
Results from optimisation of the final stage are expected during the fourth quarter of 2026.
Elevate said pilot plant availability and operational performance have also improved as freight and delivery constraints eased following an increase in inventories of spare parts and reagents.
Data generated from the pilot plant programme will be used to support a planned Scoping Study for the Marenica Uranium Project.
“Our team remains focused on continued circuit optimisation across all five stages, including uranium flotation, and we will report improvements as they are confirmed. The data generated from this programme will be used to support a Marenica Scoping Study,” Hill said.
