A fresh drilling phase has begun at Lotus Resources Limited’s Letlhakane Uranium Project in Botswana. The purpose of this drilling is to improve the current Mineral Resource Estimate and produce metallurgical test samples for a Pre-Feasibility Study that is planned for the second half of 2026.
Highlights
- Infill drilling has commenced at Lotus’ world-class Letlhakane Uranium Project, to upgrade its current Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 142.2Mt at 363ppm U3O8 for 113.7Mlb.
- The drilling program will comprise up to 12,000m reverse circulation (RC) and 1,500m diamond drilling in ~180 drill holes.
- Drilling is expected to take four months to complete, over two phases
- Letlhakane’s current MRE positions it as a substantial and attractive development project with the potential to support ~3Mlbpa of U3O8 production.
- Upgrading the MRE is expected to further strengthen project economics and development potential.
- Resource upgrade and metallurgical testwork will support comprehensive Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) scheduled for completion during the second half of CY2026
- Processing and mining trade-off studies for Letlhakane are ongoing, including:
- A two-stage leach process to minimise acid consumption and optimise uranium extraction.
- Design of a modified downstream process that aims to eliminate solvent extraction and better control impurities.
- Investigating optimal mining approach and methodology.
Lotus Managing Director Greg Bittar commented: “Letlhakane has the potential to become a significant uranium operation in a stronger, long-term uranium price environment and combined with production from our Kayelekera project, positions Lotus to be a globally significant long-term U3O8 producer. With the ramp up of production at Kayelekera underway and with the continuing strength in the uranium market outlook, we are very excited to dual track work at Letlhakane. We are finalising the mining and metallurgical trade-off studies and have now commenced a further drilling campaign to upgrade Letlhakane’s MRE of 113.7Mlb 2F 3grading 363ppm U3O8. The results will increase confidence in the MRE and feed into the PFS for Letlhakane, which we plan to finalise next year.”
