DevEx Resources (ASX: DEV) has confirmed the significant potential of its 100%-owned Nabarlek Uranium Project, located in the heart of the world-class Alligator Rivers Uranium Province (ARUP) in the Northern Territory, Australia following receipt of high-grade uranium assay results from the first tranche of diamond drilling.
These uranium assay results show a good correlation to the previously reported1 down-hole gamma uranium equivalent intercepts.
Managing Director Brendan Bradley said the receipt of high-grade laboratory assays represented a key de-risking step for the Nabarlek Project, confirming the presence of high-grade uranium mineralisation in several initial holes.
“Importantly, the results validate the down-hole gamma uranium equivalent intercepts reported previously, helping us to correlate this in-field method of analysis as a useful tool moving forward in 2023. In addition, they confirm beyond any doubt that Nabarlek is a high-grade exploration and growth opportunity for DevEx, unique in the uranium sector, that will be a major focus for us in 2023.
“We have a lot more drilling to do, but we now have a high degree of confidence that we will be able to rapidly add significant value to the Project in 2023, at a time of a significant resurgence of interest in the uranium sector as demand and pricing reflects its pivotal role in the global energy transition.
“We are looking forward to a big year ahead at Nabarlek and we will be updating shareholders over the coming weeks and months as we receive the balance of assay results from 2022 and refine our drilling plans and next steps for the Project.”
Nabarlek South
Geological logging and assays indicate the uranium mineralisation at Nabarlek South is hosted in numerous fractures and veins with intercepts including:
Within the interval in Hole 2, a 0.15m sample has assayed higher than ALS Laboratories’ maximum detection limit of 11.8% U3O8 (118,000ppm U3O8). This sample is being sent to ANSTO for further analysis to determine its grade.
These uranium-bearing fractures appear to shatter and alter the host dolerite, coalescing to form high-grade intervals such as those reported in Hole 2, and go towards creating a much broader envelope of lower-grade uranium mineralization as reported in Hole 1.
With drilling to date focused on understanding the primary controls of uranium mineralisation at Nabarlek South, the Company plans to expand the drill programme along strike from these intercepts where the uranium mineralisation remains poorly constrained by historical drilling and assaying.
U42 Prospect
A review of historical airborne radiometric surveys at U42 has highlighted a significant uranium trend that closely matches the recent bedrock uranium intercept in hole 22NBRC14 (RC14), which intersected: 1.9m @ 0.44% eU3O8 from 186.7m, including: 0.6m @ 1.03% eU3O8
Hole RC14 was designed to test for a uranium feeder structure beneath the flat dolerite and sandstone unconformity. This style of uranium mineralisation is similar to how other major uranium deposits form in the region (e.g., the world-class Ranger Uranium Mine to the south-east