Elevate Uranium (ASX: EL8) has begun the final reporting period of the year with an upgrade to the mineral resource estimate at its flagship Koppies project in Namibia, along with the launch of a $25 million capital raising to advance development.

The company announced on 9 October that the deposit had been upgraded from inferred to indicated status, resulting in 78% of the resource being reported in the indicated category.

Elevate’s overall Namibian mineral resource now sits at 112.1 million pounds of uranium oxide, while the global resource is around 160.5Mlb.

Continuous area

The indicated portion in the central part of the deposit is a large, continuous area spanning about 7 kilometres from north to south and 3.5km from east to west, with smaller pods to the west and north.

It hosts 43.6Mlb of uranium oxide, considered sufficient to support activities to move Koppies towards development.

The resource upgrade increased the Koppies total resource – incorporating the Koppies and Hirabeb discoveries – to 66.1Mlb of uranium oxide.

Hirabeb maiden resource

The Koppies resource upgrade included a maiden inferred resource for the Hirabeb deposit (within the Koppies project) of 10.2Mlb uranium oxide.

Subsequent exploration at Hirabeb has focused on stepping out from the deposit where mineralisation is yet to be closed off by drilling, as well as testing other targets throughout the tenement.

A total of 358 holes for 8,975 metres was completed during the three months to the end of September.

Capri drilling

Drilling at the Capri discovery – located 25km from Elevate’s Marenica uranium project in Namibia’s Erongo region – delineated two zones of up to 16km in strike length where the mineralisation is hosted in calcrete and weathered basement lithologies.

It is believed to be similar to the mineralisation in the Koppies project area.

Elevate plans to continue drilling for the remainder of the year to better define the known mineralisation and test early-stage targets elsewhere in the tenement.

Bigrlyi JV

On 8 October, Energy Metals (ASX: EME) announced strong results from a resource extension drilling campaign at the Bigrlyi joint venture (JV) located approximately 350km north-west of Alice Springs.

Energy is the operating partner in the venture, with Elevate holding 20.8% equity through its subsidiary Northern Territory Uranium.

Multiple drill holes at the A2, A4 and A15 sub-deposits intersected high-grade uranium mineralisation, delivering assays in excess of 10,000 parts per million uranium oxide equivalent.

Energy Metals commenced drilling in July to grow the uranium resource at Bigrlyi, which currently totals 6.32Mt at an average grade of 1,530ppm for 966,000 tonnes (21.3Mlb) of contained uranium oxide.

Capital raising

Elevate announced last week that it had received firm commitments for a $25m capital raising to advance the Koppies project and its proprietary U-pgrade uranium ore beneficiation process.

Australian fund manager Paradice Investment Management committed $12.4m in shares for a 9.9% pro forma equity interest in Elevate.

The funds will be combined with the company’s cash reserves and used to complete bench-scale metallurgical test work on Koppies ore, informing the design of an U-pgrade demonstration plant to validate the technology’s capital and operating costs.

Money will also be allocated towards completing a Koppies scoping study and approximately 100km of resource and exploration drilling across Elevate’s Namibian and Australian tenements.