Namibia Overview - January 2012

Reptile Uranium Namibia (Pty) Ltd (RUN) is DYL’s wholly owned subsidiary that manages all of its activities in Namibia.  RUN’s office is in Swakopmund and it has an all-Namibian permanent staff of about 60.  It relies on contract drilling companies to conduct its exploration but has its own well-equipped and certified laboratory for assay and pilot plant testwork.

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Figure 1: RUN's Office in Swakopmund

Key Points

  • RUN holds 100% of four contiguous Exclusive Prospecting Licences (EPLs) covering 2,875 km2 and a 65% JV interest in three adjoining EPLs covering 1,323 km2.
  • It has spent in excess of N$400 million (A$50 million) since commencing exploration in 2006 and it has drilled ~ 18,804 RC and DC holes for ~ 613,847 metres.
  • RUN has total JORC compliant resources totalling 181.34 Mt at 277 ppm U3O8 for 110.7 Mlbs of U3O8.
  • It is anticipated that the JORC compliant resource base will increase as drilling progresses.
  • Uranium mineralisation occurs both as primary (in alaskite) and secondary mineralisation (in palaeochannels, sand and calcrete).
  • Aggressive exploration programme with eight rigs completing up to 15,000 metres of reconnaissance and resource drilling per month.
  • Has Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) approval to introduce Oponona Investments and a broader Community Benefit Trust at the project level to achieve its empowerment objectives.
  • Pre-Feasibility Study underway on the Company’s flagship Omahola Project.  Interim results for the project released early in 2011 indicate competitive capital and operating costs.
  • Recent testwork has demonstrated that the low grade surficial Tubas Red Sand (TRS) deposit can be physically beneficiated to a high grade uranium sand concentrate.
  • Targeting production in 2014/15.
  • A substantial area of magnetite mineralisation was identified on EPL 3496, 45 kilometres by road from the deep-water port of Walvis Bay.  JORC compliant drilling of two deposits (M62 and M63) has outlined 78.7 Mt at 18.88% Fe at a 10% DTR cut-off.  A Scoping Study commenced in Q4 2011.
  • RUN has an all-Namibian permanent staff of about 60 operating out of the Company’s Swakopmund office.  Contract drilling and rehabilitation company personnel total about 80.

Omahola Project

  • Conceptually the Omahola Project comprises a processing plant located close to the Ongolo Alaskite deposit treating a blend of primary ore from the Ongolo and MS7 Alaskite deposits and the INCA uraniferous magnetite deposit.
  • Project Resource base, the majority of which will be mineable by open pit methods, totals 40.7 Mt at an average grade of 413 ppm U3O8 for 37 Mlbs U3O8.
  • High level pit optimisation exercises on Ongolo and MS7 commenced at the end of 2011, with the objective of enhancing the effectiveness of the next phase of targeted exploration drilling. 
  • A Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) based on the INCA deposit with supplemental feed from the lower grade Tubas Red Sand (TRS) deposit commenced in 2010.  Interim results were released early in 2011 demonstrating the potential for an operation with:
    • A 12-year mine life at a production rate of 2.2 Mlbs U3O8 per annum.
    • Competitive capital costs of less than US$340 million, including a 10% contingency.
    • Conventional processing with sulphuric acid leach and solvent extraction, followed by precipitation, drying and yellowcake packaging.
    • Operating costs below US$26/lb U3O8.
  • With the rapid increase in hard rock resources associated with the discovery of the Ongolo and MS7 deposits the low-grade TRS deposit is now seen as a stand-alone operation utilising Schauenburg technology and hence is no longer included in the Omahola Project.
     
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Tubas Red Sand Project

  • Pilot plant testwork has demonstrated that the low grade TRS deposit can be economically beneficiated to produce a low carbonate, uranium rich sand concentrate that will be suitable feedstock for the Omahola Plant.
  • The pilot plant effectively recovered over 80% of the uranium in less than 20% of the feed mass giving:
    • A 12% mass pull (e.g. 100 tonnes feed produced 12 tonnes of product),
    • a carbonate reduction of approximately 86%,
    • a 84% uranium recovery, and
    • uranium upgrade factor of 6.9 (e.g. 322 ppm U3O8 in feed resulted in 2,218 ppm U3O8 in product).
  • The hydrocyclone technology has potential application on the Company’s other deposits, such as Aussinanis.

Shiyela Iron Project

  • In 2008 DYL’s wholly owned subsidiary identified a substantial area of magnetite mineralisation on its 100% held EPL 3496 when an iron-oxide-copper-gold-uranium target returned a 340 metre magnetite rich drill intercept from near surface.
  • In 2010 a decision was made to drill test two magnetic anomalies (M62 and M63) at Shiyela with the objective of identifying an initial resource of 120 to 150 million tonnes containing 20 to 25% magnetite to 200 metres vertical depth.  If economically feasible such a deposit would sustain a 2 Mtpa (product) mine life for 15 years.
  • A mining operation at Shiyela would have a number of natural competitive advantages, namely:
  • Infrastructure advantage ~ 45 km by road from Walvis Bay deep sea port
    • 10 km from the main C14 road that leads to Walvis Bay;
    • 10 km from the Kuiseb electricity substation which currently supplies Langer Heinrich Uranium Mine
    • Potential source of water in the Tubas channel to the north of the project area.
    • Exploration upside associated with a regional aeromagnetic anomaly of 20 km strike
  • The exploration programme, which was completed in mid-2011, comprised 210 RC and DD holes for 38,473 metres of drilling, confirming strongly mineralised zones in both deposits with a hematite fraction in addition to the main magnetite mineralisation.
  • A maiden JORC Mineral Resource estimate for Shiyela returned an Inferred Mineral Resource estimate of 78.7 Mt at 18.88% Fe at 10% DTR cut-off for the M62 and M63 magnetite deposits with an average DTR magnetite content of 16.17%. 
  • Chemical assays conducted on over 100 concentrate samples produced from DTR testwork confirmed that the Shiyela Iron Project can produce excellent quality magnetite with exceptionally high iron content (68-71% Fe) and low deleterious elements (SiO2, Al2O3,P, S).
  • Two phases of testwork have been completed by ProMet Engineers Pty Ltd (Perth) indicates that a coarse grained (with 80% passing -150 micron (μ)) high quality Blast Furnace grade clean concentrate can be produced.
  • A Scoping Study is in progress with visualizing a minesite-located process plant will be designed to produce a final product at 80% passing -150 μ using a wet Low Intensity Magnetic Separation (LIMS) circuit.  The basic flowsheet will consist of a two-stage crushing circuit followed by High Pressure Grinding Rolls and inter-stage magnetic separation producing a 400 μ pre-concentrate feeding a milling/magnetic separation circuit to produce the final product.
  • Shiyela’s close proximity to the Walvis Bay port is a major advantage.  It is expected that initially the concentrate will be trucked to the port.  However even at 2 Mtpa a slurry pipeline may be more cost effective and will be evaluated as a part of the scoping study.  A transhipment solution will be considered for Walvis Bay to address draught restrictions at the port.
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