South Australia remains the country’s undisputed uranium capital following the latest exploration success by an ASX-listed junior developing a project in the state’s east.
Last month, Perth-based Koba Resources Ltd told the market it had made a new high-grade uranium oxide discovery (measured as an equivalent due to the drilling being calculated from downhole gamma logs) at its Everest prospect, which sits within its 80 per cent-owned Yarramba project near the central west New South Wales border.
According to the company, multiple intercepts of over 1000 parts per million uranium oxide (eqv) were returned from initial wide-spaced drilling over a four-kilometre strike length, with significant assays including 1 metre at 558 ppm from 85.9m (including 0.4m at 1001ppm), 2.1m at 330ppm from 95.7m (with 0.3m at 1012ppm), 0.8m at 558ppm from 94.7m as well as 0.9m at 535ppm from 90.1m.
The junior is now confident mineralisation at Everest remains open along strike and across trends.
Situated 450km east of Adelaide, Yarramba’s maiden field program was completed earlier this year and comprised 123 holes for 12,807m.
Since step-out drilling started in October 2024, Koba has made three high-grade uranium oxide (eqv) discoveries with multiple intersections grading over 1000ppm – Berber, Chivas and Everest.
As it stands, there are currently only three uranium mines in Australia, with all of them being located in SA.
The largest is the publicly-listed BHP’s polymetallic Olympic Dam, which sits 550km northwest of the state’s capital and boasts the world’s largest uranium resource.
Then there’s US-based Heathgate Resources Pty Ltd’s Beverly project some 120km to the north west of Yarramba. It has resources of 165 million pounds at 2766ppm – part of an inventory that has allowed the company to produce more than 40Mlbs of uranium oxide over 20 years of continuous operations.
Finally, there is Boss Resources Ltd’s Honeymoon mine, situated 20km south of Yarramba. It holds current resources of about 71.6Mlbs at 620ppm in oxides and yielded its first drum of yellowcake in April 2024.
In the course of its latest fieldwork, Koba was able to demonstrate that the Oban deposit ‒ which already has a 2004 JORC-compliant resource estimate of 8.2 million tonnes at 260ppm of uranium oxide for 4.6 Mlbs and is also part of Yarramba ̶ comprises shallow, thick high-grade zones and offers significant potential for additional nearby discoveries.
Not surprisingly, planning for Koba’s next phase of drilling at the project area, covering 5000 sqkm and including 250km of interpreted (but largely underexplored) palaeochannels, is well underway.
The company is also “well advanced” in securing additional permits so it can undertake infill and extensional drilling at each of its three recent discoveries.
Once it receives permission, Koba will also be able to continue testing a multitude of additional high-priority drill targets that hold considerable exploration potential. It is expected that this second phase of drilling will take place in the second quarter.
During Vertical Events’s recent RIU Explorers Conference in Western Australia, the company’s managing director and chief executive, Ben Vallerine, said demand for clean energy, like nuclear power, to help reduce carbon emissions was expected to grow.
Years of reduced investment in the sector, along with projected rising demand, had led to a significant forecast deficit.
While the spot and long-term contract prices for yellowcake had risen, they remained below the levels needed for new production, potentially offering significant tailwinds for the sector.
Additionally, Yarramba discoveries would be amenable to low-cost in-situ recovery mining as conducted at Honeymoon, where understood and proven technology was employed.
