Zambia's Muntanga East Uranium Project Achieves Up to 86% Recovery in Metallurgical Tests

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 6, Atomic Eagle announced the metallurgical test results for the Muntanga East deposit of the Muntanga uranium project in Zambia. South Africa's Mintek completed bottle roll and column leach tests on two composite samples prepared from diamond drill core from the deposit, achieving uranium recoveries of approximately 81%–86%. The test samples had an average head grade of approximately 167 ppm U₃O₈.

The bottle roll tests lasted 25 days, with uranium recoveries of 85.9% and 81.9% for the two samples, respectively, and acid consumption of approximately 3 kg/t during the test period. Uranium dissolution was essentially complete after approximately 7 days. The column leach tests used 1-meter-high test columns under simulated heap leach conditions, with final recoveries of approximately 81.0% and 80.8% for the two samples, respectively.

The total column leach test cycle was 62 days, with the uranium leach curve flattening after approximately 15 to 20 days. By the end of the main extraction phase, acid consumption was approximately 3 kg/t; after continued leaching to 62 days, total acid consumption rose to approximately 7.0–7.6 kg/t. The tests also showed that approximately 80% of the uranium is hosted in minerals that are soluble under conventional acidic heap leach conditions.

Muntanga East is part of the Muntanga uranium project wholly owned by Atomic Eagle. The project's mineral resource estimate updated in March 2026 stands at 86.2 million tonnes at an average grade of 309 ppm U₃O₈, containing 58.8 million pounds of uranium resources; Muntanga East has been included within this resource estimate. The company will incorporate the results of this round of metallurgical testing into its ongoing technical studies for subsequent evaluation of mine development options.