Elevate Uranium (ASX:EL8) is nearing completion of final factory testing for its U-pgrade demonstration plant. The plant is scheduled for shipment to Namibia in early August 2025 and is expected to arrive by October 2025, with operations commencing in November 2025. Elevate Uranium is focused on developing and exploring uranium projects. Their flagship beneficiation technology, known as U-pgrade, aims to substantially improve the economics of uranium projects.
The pilot plant will beneficiate at least 60 tonnes of uranium ore sourced from the company’s Namibian projects. With a market capitalisation of $96.4 million, Elevate Uranium says the plant is designed to confirm the U-pgrade beneficiation process at a scalable size and operate continuously. The trial aims to demonstrate the U-pgrade process and its technical applicability for commercialisation.
Managing Director Murray Hill said the pilot plant marks a pivotal step in the company’s development journey. According to Hill, the team has worked diligently to ensure the plant’s readiness, and its operation in Namibia is central to validating the process at a scalable size. QAQC analysed results from operation of the plant will take four to five months to collate and report.
Elevate’s Senior Metallurgist Andrew Jones will relocate from Perth to Namibia to oversee the plant’s arrival, reassembly, and operation. The U-pgrade process reduces ore mass by greater than 95% before leaching, thereby concentrating uranium and increasing the grade to be leached. U-pgrade increases the Marenica Uranium Project ore grade from 93 parts per million (ppm) to 5,000ppm triuranium octoxide and reduces capital and operating costs by 50%.
