Uranium developer Deep Yellow has reported a 26% increase in the total contained uranium in the Mulga Rock East project, in the Great Victoria desert of Western Australia, to 71.2-million pounds and delivered a substantial uplift in the critical mineral value of the asset.

The critical minerals’ inventory, including copper, nickel, cobalt and zinc, increased by between 200% and 400%, depending on the element.

The updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) at Mulga Rock East comprises 73.9-million tonnes at 605 parts per million (ppm) uranium oxide (U₃O₈) equivalent at Ambassador and 7.3-million tonnes at 425 ppm U₃O₈ equivalent at Princess.

“When we acquired Mulga Rock through the Vimy Resources merger in August 2022 we identified significant opportunity to uplift the value of the project by considering extracting the critical minerals in addition to the uranium associated with the Ambassador and Princess deposits,” said Deep Yellow MD and CEO John Borshoff.

In order to re-rate and grow the Mulga Rock project, Deep Yellow had to undertake a considerable amount of preparatory drilling for essential metallurgical testwork to establish the leaching characteristics of the critical minerals and prepare an updated MRE focusing on both the uranium and non-uranium (critical minerals) components associated with the deposits, explained Borshoff.

“The results to date confirm our positive expectation for this exciting project with results illustrating the potential value uplift that could be captured by the integrated development approach.”

The company will now progress to a definitive feasibility study.

“Importantly, through our successful work at MRP and the advanced stage of our flagship Tumas project in Namibia, where we will make a final investment decision in the third quarter this year, Deep Yellow is well-positioned to become a geographically diversified, multi-mine uranium producer in the coming years, with assets planned for production by 2026 at Tumas and 2028 at Mulga Rock,” said Borshoff.