Forte Energy looks to up uranium resource in Mauritania with further drilling

West Africa focused uranium explorer Forte Energy (LON:FTE. ASX:FTE) updated on its activities in the past quarter, which saw the completion of the maiden JORC resource estimate for its flagship Bir En Nar uranium project in Mauritania, which could soon see a substantial increase.
The company has been focusing its efforts on Mauritania, where it is now planning to “substantially” increase the maiden JORC resource that was established during the quarter. The current resource stands at 0.55 Mt (million tonnes) grading 886 ppm (parts per million) uranium for 1.07 Mlbs (million pounds) contained in the indicated category and an inferred resource of 0.78 Mt at 575 ppm for 0.99 Mlbs uranium in the inferred category.

Mineralisation remains open down-dip in many areas, while RC (reverse circulation) drilling has confirmed another mineralised zone between the Northern and the Southern Zones. Further drilling planned to test extensions along with testing aimed at verifying radiometric logging data omitted from initial JORC estimate.

Forte Energy said the results from the first five targets tested by RC drilling were promising, providing further confirmation of the potential of the Reguibat  Craton  in Northern Mauritania to be a significant new uranium province.

Uranium exploration in Guinea continued with the results of a metallurgical test at the Firawa project indicating potential for economic recovery from leaching, wile acid leach testing has shown uranium recovery rates of 67%. Further pre-feasibility optimisation testing is currently being undertaken to reduce acid consumption and further improve uranium recovery rates.

Forte will commence further pre-feasibility drilling at Firawa at the end of Q3 to extend the current JORC resource, which stands at 17.7 Mt grading 296 ppm uranium for 11.6 million pounds of contained uranium.