Australian Mining spotlights three Australian-based companies with bright uranium futures.
When the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) took place, it saw 25 countries such as the US, Canada and France launch the ‘Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy’, which recognised the role nuclear energy can play in achieving global net-zero by 2050.
COP29 saw six more countries including Kazakhstan and Nigeria join, signalling a shift in attitude towards this form of energy.
The primary fuel for nuclear is uranium. While critical minerals such as lithium saw cyclically low prices in 2024, the uranium price held strong.
The uranium price soared above $US80 ($123) per pound in November 2023, its highest peak since March 2008. This momentum continued into 2024, hovering above $US100/lb in January and February and sitting between $US70/lb and $US90/lb for the rest of the year.
And Australian operations are benefiting, with local uranium production increasing by 20 per cent in 2023 according to the ‘Australia’s Identified Mineral Resources 2023’ report. The restart of Boss Energy’s Honeymoon uranium mine in South Australia is a key reason for this uptick.
Kazakhstan has long held the title as the world’s largest uranium producer, followed by Namibia, Canada and then Australia.
Needless to say, the nuclear industry is going to need uranium from all avenues if it’s going to be a reliable energy source in the future.
Australian Mining takes a look at three uranium-focused companies looking to become important pieces to the nuclear puzzle.
Koba Resources
Koba Resources is developing its Yarramba uranium project, located 17km north of the Honeymoon uranium operation in South Australia.
“The strength of Yarramba is the size and the exploration upside,” Koba managing director Ben Vallerine told Australian Mining.
“I see this project as an exploration geologist’s dream. We’ve got 5000km2 of tenure with over 250km of palaeochannels to explore in a world-class uranium district. The potential to find a new unknown deposit at Yarramba is incredible.
“If we have success, there’s a clear pathway to production with existing infrastructure just down the road.”
Koba is actively drilling at Yarramba, which is proving that the mineralisation is more widespread than anticipated.
“We began drilling in and around the Oban deposit and have confirmed there is high-grade uranium mineralisation,” Vallerine said.
“The Chivas prospect also intersected some very significant uranium results, which shows mineralisation isn’t restricted to Oban. There is a JORC 2004 resource at Oban but we have now discovered high-grade mineralisation 700m to the east, so there’s huge potential to find more mineralisation as we step out further.”
Koba has also drilled 1.5km to the south of the Berber prospect, returning some very strong results.
“Berber was previously identified in the 1990s,” Vallerine said. “We stepped out 350m to the east of the historic mineralisation and uncovered some high-grade uranium. Mineralisation now exists in sparse drilling over 700m of strike at Berber and remains open in all directions which is very exciting.”
Alongside Yarramba, Koba holds the Harrier uranium project in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, which Vallerine said has “very high grades” and is part of the company’s “longer play”.
“One of our rock chip samples from Harrier returned 7.48 per cent uranium oxide, equalling 74,800 parts per million (ppm),” he said.
“We’re looking for 500–1000ppm in South Australia, and we’re finding 75,000ppm in Canada, so Harrier is a different beast.”
With projects in two premier uranium jurisdictions, Koba has carved out a diversified portfolio that could meet heightened uranium demand in the future.
“All the tech and AI companies are backing nuclear to fulfill their power needs,” Vallerine said.
“With the green energy movement, several people are bullish on nuclear being part of the solution. I think the solution requires several things, but nuclear is part of it.
“The world has started to come around to the fact that nuclear is a green energy source. We’re going to need more power in the future as populations increase and our reliance on technology and AI grows.”
Koba will continue exploration at Yarramba in 2025, with the company commencing passive seismic surveys at the Mt John prospect in December 2024.
“We’re going to continue exploring the existing prospects and look for new prospects while generating new drill targets to test,” Vallerine said.
Connected Minerals
Connected Minerals had a landmark 2024, recommencing trading on the ASX and changing its name from Connected IO in October, all while finalising acquisitions of uranium exploration licenses in Namibia.
Connected holds an 80 per cent interest in three uranium projects in Namibia: Etango North-East, Swakopmund, and Rossing South. Etango North-East has been granted an exclusive prospecting licence (EPL), and the EPLs for Swakopmund and Rossing South are pending.
“From December 2023, we started pushing to acquire uranium projects,” Connected managing director Warrick Clent told Australian Mining.
“Namibia is a great jurisdiction for uranium – it has a 45-year history of uranium production. We had some contact with vendors and assessed a few projects to find a good mix.
“I’m looking forward to leading the charge of our uranium portfolio, especially in a mineral I believe is really going places in the future.”
Multiple tech conglomerates have signed deals with energy companies. These include a 20-year power purchase agreement between Microsoft and Constellation Energy, and Amazon’s small modular reactor agreements with Energy Northwest, X-energy and Dominion Energy.
Clent said agreements like these will drive uranium demand.
“It’s coming from the requirement for baseload power,” Clent said.
“Everyone loves the idea of renewables and getting away from fossil fuels, but you still need to provide that baseload power, and that’s where the tech companies are looking ahead in long-term deals.
“Because of it, the growth of AI (artificial intelligence) and data will continue.”
To become a key uranium supplier, Connected is starting with the Etango North-East project.
In late October 2024, the company commenced field exploration at Etango North-East to assess an area historically noted for high but unverified uranium scintillometer readings.
The samples collected then underwent chemical analysis for uranium content to identify potential drill targets for future exploration, with the initial rock chip results confirming high-grade mineralisation of up to 2086ppm triuranium octoxide.
“(Etango North-East is) in an area that’s quite structurally complex (and) an area of high uranium radiometric signature,” Clent said.
“We’ve taken our time to get into the right spots geologically, and we think we see the continuations of (Bannerman Energy’s) Etango mineralisation style into Etango North-East. We hope to establish these targets in early 2025, with upwards of two drilling programs running in the first or second quarter.
“We don’t want to lay back and sit on this ground. We’re active explorers and we want to do the hard work to get these projects up and running.”
Recharge Metals
Recharge Metals dived headfirst into the uranium exploration space in March 2024 by acquiring the Newnham Lake uranium project in the Athabasca Basin in Canada.
Recharge then kept this momentum going by acquiring the Carter uranium project in Montana, US.
“Uranium’s driving fundamentals are what made us keen to acquire an advanced uranium asset,” Recharge managing director Felicity Repacholi told Australian Mining.
“Carter, which is on the outer rim of the Power River Basin, a proven region for in-situ recovery uranium production, has had a huge amount of drilling and has historical resources in the ground.”
Many uranium projects are being developed in the Powder River Basin, including Peninsula Energy’s Lance project, one of the largest uranium resources in the US.
“There’s six permitted ISR processing plants within 300km of Carter, including Peninsula’s,” Repacholi said.
“Carter was mainly drilled by (former energy company) Kerr-McGee back in the 1970s and early 1980s. The real benefit and cost saver for Recharge is having those drill holes already done.”
Recharge is focused on two deposits at Carter: Acadia and Mindy, both of which were identified through Kerr-McGee’s drilling.
“Preliminary drilling programs will focus on those key areas where the resource was identified to bring them up to a JORC 2012 standard,” Repacholi said.
“We’ve also got several targets identified from previous drilling that found roll fronts over multiple kilometres.”
Recharge will use 2025 to undergo permitting processes and review all available data to refine its drilling program, which is expected to commence in mid-2025.
“Our geologists are going through all the hard copy information from the 1970s and early 1980s,” Repacholi said.
“There’s a wealth of information you obtain when you acquire a project with such a large amount of drilling completed for minimal costs.”
Amid buoyant market conditions, Connected, Recharge and Koba are ready to de-risk their uranium projects through their exploration campaigns.
And with the uranium price projected to maintain its high levels throughout 2025, these explorers have timed their run well.
This feature will appear in the February 2025 issue of Australian Mining.
