PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australian resources company Oklo Uranium has acquired a 70% interest in the Hoasib uranium project, in Namibia, in a A$20-million cash-and-share deal.

Oklo would buy 70% of Namibian incorporated Green Mineral Resources (GMR), the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

The vendor of the shares in GMR is Africa Uranium, an unlisted public company in which ASX-listed Cape Lambert Resources holds an interest.

Oklo would pay A$3-million in cash and 309-million shares, valued at some A$17-million, to acquire the stake in GMR.

As part of the transaction, Oklo would undertake a capital raising for the outstanding cash portion of the transaction as well as sufficient funds to undertake an exploration and drilling programme with the objective of identifying a new uranium resource.

The Hoasib uranium project is located in close proximity to Paladin Energy’s Langer Heinrich uranium mine.

Oklo said that the Hoasib project was prospective for high tonnage, low-grade palaeochannel-hosted uranium mineralisation, such as the prevalent mineralisation at the Trekkopje deposit and Langer Heinrich uranium mine.

The company noted that, although the proximity of the Hoasib project to the Langer Heinrich uranium mine did not in itself mean that the Hoasib project would host economic levels of uranium, the proximal nature of both uranium mineral occurrences indicated that they possibly shared the same regional mineralising processes critical in the formation and preservation of this form of uranium mineralisation.

Exploration conducted at the Hoasib project to date confirms its Trekkopje‐Langer Heinrich potential, the ASX-listed company said.

In two lines of drilling spaced 1 000 m apart across a large sedimentary feature, referred to as the Main basin deposit, broad zones of near‐surface calcrete‐hosted uranium mineralisation have been identified.

A mineralised zone up to 4 000 m wide was intersected in shallow reverse circulation drill holes on both lines. The uranium mineralisation was generally below 200e ppm, with the highest intersection at 308e ppm over 0,1 m.

The uranium mineralisation is related to a laterally extensive sequence of sheet‐wash deposits associated with a palaeo‐drainage system. The uranium has been sourced from proximal “hot granites” and precipitated as carnotite in the calcrete sequence. In this respect it is similar to Langer Heinrich. The mineralisation was open in both directions of the palaeo‐drainage trend and at depth.

Oklo added that another four uranium targets have been identified within the Hoasib project, and all represent palaeo‐channel Trekkopje/Langer Heinrich-type targets.

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