London-listed Arkle Resources has announced the results of the first phase of drilling at its paleochannel targets on EPL 8995, which is part of the company's Erongo uranium project, in Namibia, with assays from its primary ULG target to follow imminently.

The company reports that uranium mineralisation has been intersected on six of the ten drill fences across the Paleo East channel and in four step-out holes between them, over 2.9 km of the channel.

Arkle says all of the mineralised intervals begin within 5 m of surface, adding that the best interval is 6 m at 102 parts per million (ppm) of uranium trioctoxide (U₃O₈) from surface in hole R057.

Arkle CEO Rory Harding explains that six of the ten fences the company drilled across the Paleo East channel returned uranium, along close to 3 km of its length, and every one of the 12 mineralised intervals starts within 5 m of surface.

Carnotite is visible in eight holes from 1 m below surface, and the best grade, 262 ppm in hole R003, sits only 4 m down, he points out.

He notes that the channels run north-east to south-west with the regional drainage, through the company’s ground and on towards Trekkopje about 10 km away, adding that the company has drilled a little under a quarter of the Paleo East channel so far.

Calcrete deposits such as Trekkopje are low-grade, bulk-tonnage systems in which the volume of near-surface channel fill matters as much as grade. Harding says it is significant that all of the mineralisation found starts within 5 m of surface.

"Drilling out paleochannels like these requires relatively close-spaced drilling over a wide area, but the purpose of this first wide-spaced programme was to confirm the extent of the mineralised channels and to guide our interpretation of the basement architecture,” he says.

Harding explains that the company is now recalibrating the channel-depth interpretation and designing infill drilling across the mineralised sections of the channel, and the results for the ULG target, about 12 km to the west-southwest, will follow shortly.

“Beyond the Paleo East target, we have at least three further paleochannel targets across the licences, including on EPLs 8298 and 8290, which we plan to work through in the same way,” he adds.

NEXT STEPS

The company says it has planned activity on the paleochannel targets through the remainder of this year.

This includes recalibration of the channel-depth interpretation from the two horizontal loop electromagnetic (HLEM) lines crossing Paleo East, followed by the design of infill drilling across the mineralised sections of the channel and step-out drilling to test the remaining 9.8 km.

Additionally, shallow trench sampling is planned between mineralised drill holes on the Paleo East target, to identify infill drill positions, with follow-on trenching, mapping and sampling shortly to begin on the paleochannels and samples submitted for assay.

Planned activity also includes first-pass geological interpretation of the paleochannel targets. Trench and surface mapping continues in the area to identify new drill sites, together with evaluation of additional ground and further geophysics, including new HLEM lines over the paleochannel targets on EPL 8298 (Marenica South).

The company says it will also review the wider licence package against the airborne radiometric dataset, including ground where mineralisation may be only weakly expressed in surface radiometrics.