TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Namibia-focused uranium project developer Forsys Metals on Wednesday said positive drilling results from an extension-exploration programme on the company’s fully permitted Valencia mining licence has resulted in a new discovery, referred to as ‘Valencia East’, which is located 500 m north-east from the planned Valencia production pit.
Forsys said that since November 20, 2012, the company had completed 15 percussion drill holes for a total of 2 250 m, and as a result of the continued exploration success at Valencia, comprising Valencia Main, Valencia East, and Valencia North and the nearby Namibplaas deposit, combined with the high likelihood of common infrastructure for these projects, the company consolidated them and from now on considers the projects as one single project.
The company said the consolidated project would be named the Norasa uranium project.
Norasa is an everyday term used by the local Damara people and means ‘united’ or ‘putting things together’.
“The initial drilling results at Valencia East have confirmed considerable mineralisation in 11 of the 15 percussion drill holes, encountering significant intersections of greater than 200 parts per million (ppm) triuranium pentoxide (U3O8), including many greater than 400 ppm.
“We are very pleased that this programme continues to increase both the potential resources and the overall grade of the consolidated Valencia and Namibplaas projects, now known as Norasa. The consolidation of the projects confirms our strategy to build a world-class, large-capacity process plant that can be supplied with ore from both the Valencia and Namibplaas deposits,” CEO Marcel Hilmer said.
The combined measured and indicated resource of the Valencia and Namibplaas deposits, which were located only seven kilometres apart, is about 93.9-million pounds of U3O8, grading 175 ppm, at a cutoff grade of 100 ppm.
The company’s TSX-V-listed stock closed down 1.37% at 72 Canadian cents apiece on Wednesday.