Elevate Uranium’s pilot plant delivers a sharper path for Marenica ore

Pilot plant cuts Marenica feed by 88%

Elevate Uranium Ltd (ASX:EL8) has cleared an important processing milestone at its Marenica uranium project in Namibia, with the first four stages of its U-pgrade pilot plant rejecting approximately 88% of the original ore mass. The remaining material was upgraded from a head grade of 89 parts per million uranium to 590 ppm, a roughly sevenfold increase, with uranium recovery of 79% through the same stages.

“U-pgradeTM Pilot Plant”

“Pilot Plant Performance Compared to Bench Scale Test Work.”

Caption and image © Elevate Uranium Ltd. From “Quarterly Activities/Appendix 5B Cash Flow Report”, 30 Oct 2026.

The result broadly matched the company’s historical 2013 bench-scale testwork and provides continuous pilot-scale evidence for the process design. Elevate’s earlier 88% pilot plant milestone had already put the headline figures on the market’s radar; this quarterly report adds the operating detail behind them, including mass removal of 47% during scrubbing, 23% during attrition, 2% during desliming and 15% through calcite flotation.

Calcite removal opens an ambient acid-leach route

The technical attraction is not simply a higher uranium grade. Stage 4 removes calcite, the carbonate mineral that otherwise prevents acid leaching of Marenica’s calcrete ore. Elevate says the resulting product can be acid-leached at ambient temperature for about four to six hours, rather than using an alkaline process above 92 degrees Celsius with residence times of 24 to 36 hours.

“Schematic of Conventional vs. U-pgradeTM Leach Circuit Volumes.”

On the company’s stated design assumptions, the shorter leach cycle could reduce the leach-circuit volume required for a given throughput by approximately 25 times, while the mass rejection ahead of leaching would further reduce the material entering that circuit. Those are process claims rather than project economics: the pilot data have not yet established commercial-scale capital costs, operating costs or production outcomes.

Stage 5 remains the key technical test

Uranium flotation, the fifth and final stage, was commissioned in August and was still being optimised at quarter end. Elevate expects integrated results from all five stages in the December 2026 quarter and says Stage 5 is expected to deliver an additional six- to eightfold increase in grade. That uplift remains an estimate until the pilot campaign reports its results.

Only about 12% of the original ore mass is feeding Stage 5 after the first four stages. The company also plans to test newly excavated Marenica ore at the updated resource grade of 180 ppm U₃O₈ during the December quarter, before incorporating the pilot results into a Marenica scoping study scheduled to begin in the March 2027 quarter. Ore from Elevate’s Koppies project is also planned for pilot-plant testing in that quarter.

Marenica stake moves towards 90%

Elevate completed the acquisition of a further 10% of Marenica Minerals from Xanthos Mining during the quarter, taking its holding to 85%. The remaining 5% purchase from Millenium Minerals had its closing date extended to 30 October 2026, with completion still outstanding at the end of the reporting period. If completed, the transaction would lift Elevate’s interest to 90%, while Xanthos would retain a 10% free-carried interest.

“Namib IV – Mineral Resource and Holes Drilled During the Quarter.”

The ownership step-up sits alongside an intensive drilling campaign. Elevate drilled 718 holes for 31,115 metres at Marenica, mainly infilling the Inferred resource to support potential conversion into the Indicated category, and drilled a further 191 holes for 5,408 metres at the Namib IV resource area within Koppies. An updated Marenica resource estimate is due in the next quarter, although the company said the existing resource estimates had not changed at the time of the report.

Cash remains available as drilling slows

Elevate reported cash holdings of $22.2 million and exploration expenditure of $4.08 million for the quarter. After operating four to five drill rigs during the preceding two quarters, the company reduced the fleet to one rig from October and expects exploration expenditure to decline.

That leaves a relatively clear sequence of near-term tests: whether Stage 5 can deliver the projected grade uplift, whether the higher-grade Marenica sample behaves as expected, whether the resource update changes project scale or classification, and whether the remaining 5% acquisition completes. The pilot plant has made the processing concept more tangible; the next results must show how much of that advantage survives the final concentration stage and the transition into a scoping study.