ew investors in Kayelekera Uranium Mine (KUM) in Karonga, Lotus Resources Limited, have bought Livingstonia Uranium project in Malawi at $25 000 (about K20 million), the firm’s managing director Keith Bowes has confirmed.
The project, which is located some 90 kilometres southeast of KUM in Karonga, hosts an historical inferred mineral resource of 8.3 million tonnes.
Bowes is quoted in a Mining Weekly publication as having said that the area will be the basis of the first phase of exploration set to start towards the end of this year.
He said: “This is an extremely accretive acquisition for Lotus with the potential to increase our global mineral resource by 16 percent for less than $0.004 per pound.
“More importantly, we have increased our landholding at the highly prospective, yet poorly explored, Livingstonia region, to 187 square kilometres.”
Bowes said there are multiple walk-up, drill-ready targets across the Livingstonia area, including at the boundary of the Livingstonia resource where an airborne radiometric survey indicates mineralisation continues into the existing land.
He said other prospective targets, including Livingstonia North and Chilumba, will be tested in future exploration programmes.
“Assuming exploration success, the company will undertake ore sorting test work on the Livingstonia material in 2022 as part of the process for determining whether Livingstonia could become a future satellite operation for the company,” said Bowes.