Norfolk Metals to ride uranium rush with maiden drill run at Orroroo

A cashed up Norfolk Metals (ASX: NFL) has been granted its final permit for a maiden drill program at its Orroroo uranium project in South Australia. The green light comes as spot prices for the commodity crossed 15-year highs earlier this week.

The permits have been a year in the making and enable Norfolk to commence drilling on Exploration Licence 6552 – An area that hosts high priority targets with known uranium mineralisation based on prior exploration.

To fund the accelerated and aggressive drill program, Norfolk raised $1 million at 20 cents per share. Norfolk says the placement was “firmly oversubscribed with several current major shareholders corner-stoning the raise to further solidify the top holders position and company share structure.”

“Now fully permitted to drill the known uranium occurrences and potential palaeochannel extensions of the Orroroo Project with a highly efficient drill rig and operator, we look forward to presenting our results in December,” said Executive Chairman Ben Phillips.

Drilling Targets with Known Uranium Occurrences

Norfolk confirmed uranium occurrences at Orroroo back in February via downhole geophysics of historical wells.

The key characteristics of the project and findings include:

• Walloway Basin: Orroroo is located in the Walloway Basin– A known uranium province and analogous to the adjacent Frome Embayment which hosts Boss Energy’s Honeymoon Project and Heathgate’s Four Mile deposit
• Existing infrastructure: Norfolk re-entered existing water wells which were originally drilled for coal exploration
• Uranium confirmed at historical wells: 3 out of 3 wells tested returned uranium mineralisation with a peak reading of 650 ppm (parts per million)
• Uranium at depth: The mineralisation was hit at depths of 100-150 metres which is an attractive depth for mining, as they can be cost-effectively extracted via in-situ recovery methods

The Big Rig

Watson Drilling’s Bourne 1000THD drill rig stood out as the optimal choice for the accelerated drill program, owing to its superior capabilities and proven track record.

“It’s not often that you’re weeks or days out of a drill campaign with what Watson Drilling calls ‘the premium uranium sandstone hosted driller’ in the state. They’ve drilled the Beverley Uranium Mine, Boss Energy’s Honeymoon and Alligator Energy’s Samphire all this year,” says Phillips, adding that “it’s a rig that can drill, log and remediate a hole every day.”

The maiden drill program will target the 3 proven uranium occurrences as well as their associated palaeochannel structures. These ancient river structures could reveal up to 20 kilometers of uranium exploration ground.

Norfolk is committed to drilling as many metres as possible while following guidelines and safety procedures in this phase one pre-Christmas drill program.

Uranium Breaks US$80/lb

Uranium prices hit a 15-year high of US$80/lb on Wednesday, according to fuel brokers UxC. Year-to-date, spot price are up almost 70%.

UxC said that "as we approach the end of the year, there have been several buyers with specific interest in December delivery," with "the bullish spot price moves have partially been due to rising mid-and-long-term demand."

This article was first published on Market Index.