Okapi tables maiden USA uranium resource

Okapi Resources has wasted no time in producing a maiden uranium resource at its Tallahassee uranium project in Colorado, USA. The company only finalised the acquisition in August and has already announced a maiden resource of 25.4 million tonnes going at 490 ppm U3O8 for 27.6 million pounds of yellowcake. Plans are now underway to commence a 10,000-metre maiden drilling program to bolster the resource further.

The Tallahassee uranium project covers about 7,500 acres in central Colorado’s prolific Tallahassee Creek uranium district about 140 kilometres south-west of Denver.

Uranium deposits in the Tallahassee District are typically hosted in the tertiary sandstones of the Echo Park Formation and in the clay bearing conglomerates of the Tallahassee Creek Formation.

Mineralisation in the area is interpreted to have been deposited after stream sedimentation when uraniferous groundwater moved through the host rocks and encountered favourable carbonaceous interfaces to precipitate. The paleochannels were later partially buried by the extrusion of the Thirtynine Mile Andesite which preserved the sedimentary sequences and allowed them to be gradually enriched with uranium.

The Noah, Northwest Taylor and Boyer deposits within Okapi’s concessions are all hosted by the more favourable Echo Park sandstones. Mineralisation is reportedly generally thick and laterally continuous and commonly comprises high-grade mineralisation within broader, lower-grade envelopes.

Approximately 30km to the northeast of the Noah, Northwest Taylor and Boyer deposits, Okapi holds a 100 per cent interest in eight mining claims that cover a portion of the High Park uranium deposit. This mineralisation is hosted by an outlier of the Tallahassee Creek Formation.

Previous operators have drilled over 2,200 holes for a whopping 350,000 metres in the area which have fed into Okapi’s maiden JORC resource.

Okapi Resources Executive Director, David Nour said: “This is yet another significant milestone for Okapi, achieving a Maiden JORC 2021 Mineral Resource that provides a robust platform on which to add further pounds via exploration within our current landholdings and through further value-accretive acquisitions.”

Interestingly, Okapi says much of the concession contains large swathes of ground poorly tested by previous drilling.

Okapi proposes to pump a decent slice of its exploration budget into the Tallahassee project including a drilling campaign comprising an aggregate coverage of about 10,000 metres.

Management says it will be looking to increase the existing Tallahassee resource base and its confidence in the resource estimate via the drilling and also generate samples for initial metallurgical test work.

Okapi Resources is building a considerable portfolio of advanced, high-grade uranium assets in some of America’s most prolific uranium districts. The company recently acquired options to purchase 100 per cent of the high-grade Rattler uranium project in Utah, including the historical Rattlesnake open pit mine and it has also now acquired the old high-grade Sunnyside uranium mine.

Uranium prices have pushed higher in recent weeks, peaking at just over US$49, buoyed on by the push towards green-energy and decreasing global supplies.

If the uranium price gets itself set firmly above the magical US$50 mark, companies like Okapi will be well placed to ride the next uranium boom that last time around created multi-billion-dollar companies.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au