Namibia’s position as a critical global uranium supplier is poised for a significant technological leap with the imminent arrival of Elevate Uranium Ltd’s (EL8) revolutionary U-pgrade™ pilot plant. Scheduled to depart Perth, Australia, in early August and arrive in Namibia by early October, the plant represents a potential paradigm shift in processing the country’s vast surficial uranium resources, promising dramatic cost reductions and enhanced economic viability.
The announcement, detailed in Elevate Uranium’s June 2025 Quarterly Activities Report, marks a pivotal moment for both the Australian-listed explorer and Namibia’s mining sector. The U-pgrade™ technology, developed specifically for calcrete-hosted uranium deposits prevalent in Namibia, aims to concentrate low-grade ore before the costly leaching stage, potentially slashing both capital and operating expenses by around 50% compared to conventional methods.
Elevate Uranium’s confidence stems from extensive bench-scale testing. The proprietary process has demonstrated an ability to increase ore grades from typical Namibian levels of around 93 parts per million (ppm) uranium oxide (U₃O₈) to a concentrated product of approximately 5,000 ppm. Crucially, it achieves this by rejecting roughly 98% of the non-mineralised mass upfront. This pre-concentration drastically reduces the volume of material needing expensive chemical leaching and processing downstream, targeting the core drivers of high operating costs in uranium extraction.
The Namibian pilot will process a minimum of 60 tonnes of uranium-bearing material sourced from Elevate’s extensive Namibian portfolio. The primary objective is to validate the process at a scalable size under continuous operating conditions, de-risking the technology ahead of potential commercial deployment. Success here would provide critical data for designing a full-scale commercial U-pgrade™ plant, potentially positioning Elevate and Namibia at the forefront of efficient uranium beneficiation.
This technological push coincides with aggressive exploration success within Elevate’s Namibian tenements. At the Namib IV prospect, part of the Koppies Uranium Project in the Erongo region, ongoing drilling has expanded the known mineralised envelope to approximately 11 km by 7.5 km. The company drilled 266 holes for 7,478 metres at Namib IV during the quarter, consistently intersecting shallow mineralisation starting within 10 metres of the surface – a characteristic favourable for lower-cost open-pit mining. Notable intersections included 3.0 metres at 367 ppm eU₃O₈ and 2.0 metres at 653 ppm eU₃O₈.
Simultaneously, exploration at the Marenica Uranium Project, 25km north of Orano’s Trekkopje mine, yielded a potentially new style of mineralisation. Drill hole MAR2500 intersected a significant 13.0-metre interval of near-surface, granite-hosted uranium grading 203 ppm eU₃O₈, including a higher-grade section of 3.5 metres at 326 ppm. This discovery, occurring in basement rock rather than the typical palaeochannel sediments, opens new exploration avenues and underscores the prospectivity of Elevate’s holdings. In total, Elevate drilled 310 holes for 9,179 metres across its Namibian projects during the quarter.
Elevate Uranium boasts substantial resources in Namibia, reporting a total Namibian resource of 127.4 million pounds (Mlb) of U₃O₈ (380.9 million tonnes at 134 ppm). The Koppies Project alone holds an inferred resource of 66.1 Mlb. The successful implementation of U-pgrade™ across these resources could dramatically alter their economic profile.
The Namibian government, actively pursuing value addition within its mining sector as outlined in its newly launched 6th National Development Plan (NDP6), will be closely monitoring the U-pgrade™ pilot. NDP6 explicitly emphasizes mineral resource beneficiation to stimulate economic growth, job creation, and move Namibia up the value chain. A technology that significantly lowers the cost of extracting and concentrating uranium directly aligns with these national strategic goals, promising higher returns on resource exports and potentially more sustainable mining operations.
Local preparation is underway, with a Namibian contractor appointed to support the pilot plant’s assembly and operations upon arrival. The necessary Namibian approvals for the plant are reported to be on schedule. The pilot operations, expected to commence shortly after the plant’s assembly in October, will be a critical proving ground over the coming months.
The global context adds further weight to this development. With increasing focus on energy security and decarbonisation driving renewed interest in nuclear power, demand for uranium is expected to rise. Namibia, already a significant producer, stands to benefit immensely if its vast, lower-grade resources can be processed more economically. Elevate Uranium’s U-pgrade™ pilot represents a bold step towards achieving that efficiency. If the technology delivers on its promise in the harsh realities of the Namibian landscape, it could herald a new era of competitiveness for the country’s uranium industry, translating subsurface wealth into tangible economic growth and solidifying its position in the global energy market. The eyes of the mining world will be watching the Namibian desert this October.