PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Uranium hopeful Energia Minerals said it would update the scoping study for its flagship Carley Bore project, in Western Australia, after upgrading the mineral resource estimate at the project.

Following an in-fill programme, Energia elevated about five-million tonnes of the previously announced inferred resource to the indicated status, taking the indicated resource to 5.4-million tonnes, grading 420 parts per million (ppm).

The project’s total Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource now stood at 22.8-million tonnes, grading 310 ppm for 15.6-million pounds of contained uranium oxide.

“This resource upgrade represents a strong outcome and marks another very important step forward for this high-quality project. Amongst other things, this reflects the remarkable continuity of the Carley Bore mineralisation,” said MD Kim Robinson.

“We are now able to move forward with our scoping studies and work towards a field leaching trial later in the year with a great degree of confidence.”

Energia said that the reclassification of the resource was owing to a number of factors, including an increase in the drilling density, confirmation of the hydrogeological amenability of Carley Bore to in situ recovery (ISR) extraction, the now well established continuity of mineralisation, and the use of geochemical assays in preference to less accurate gamma log results.

Recent work has also enhanced the company’s understanding of mineralisation, geology, porosity, density, sediment characteristics and the hydrogeological environment of the Carley Bore deposit, and this knowledge would feed into development of a detailed hydrogeological model to be commissioned shortly.

“Importantly, the recent drilling programme has also clearly shown the potential for further growth in the resource, which remains open. This potential will be further tested when we commence our 2014 field activities,” added Robinson.

“We plan to commence work on an updated scoping study, which we are aiming to complete by the end of March to define the parameters for a potential new, low-cost ISR operation at Carley Bore.”