Madaouela's 116 Mlb Foreign Estimate Puts Data Verification Ahead of Re-Rating

• Atomic Eagle Limited has tabled a foreign Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 116.5 million pounds of uranium oxide at 1,282 parts per million (ppm) for its reacquired Madaouela Uranium Project in Niger.
• The estimate is reported under Canadian National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) and has not been verified against the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) Code, meaning it cannot yet be relied upon as an ASX-compliant Mineral Resource.
• Atomic Eagle's own disclosure identifies specific unresolved items ahead of reclassification, including unverified density values, unassessed quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) procedures, and unconfirmed reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction (RPEEE) under JORC criteria.
• The historical pit-shell optimization underpinning the estimate assumed a uranium price of US$70 per pound, a base that has not yet been re-run against current market pricing.
• Atomic Eagle is targeting a JORC 2012-compliant MRE for Madaouela in the fourth quarter of 2026, a milestone that matters more to investors right now than the headline pound count.

Atomic Eagle Limited (ASX: AEU | OTCQX: AEUXF) has tabled a foreign estimate not yet compliant with the JORC Code, an important distinction for investors. The company's reacquired Madaouela Uranium Project in Niger contains 116.5 million pounds of uranium oxide at a grade of 1,282 parts per million (ppm). The estimate is reported strictly as a foreign estimate under ASX Listing Rules Chapter 19, pending verification. For investors, that distinction matters: the number is a technical starting point drawn from historical work, not yet a resource the company can rely on for reserve declarations, project valuations, or financing purposes until the conversion work is completed.

The Estimate & Its Technical Basis

The resource contains a Measured & Indicated component of 96.9 million pounds of uranium oxide at 1,275 ppm. It also includes an Inferred component of 19.6 million pounds at 1,330 ppm. Together, these total 41.21 million tonnes at an average grade of 1,282 ppm. The estimate has an effective date of July 1, 2022, and is based on an NI 43-101 feasibility study (FS) prepared by the independent consultant SRK Consulting. That study constrained the open-pit portion within an optimized pit shell built on a uranium price assumption of US$70 per pound, and the underground portion within volumes exceeding 400 ppm at the same price base.

The underlying database is substantial: approximately 600,000 meters of drilling across more than 5,700 holes, completed by former operator GoviEx Uranium between 2007 and 2021, supported by metallurgical, hydrogeological, and environmental studies, including an environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) first completed in 2015 and updated in 2024. That volume of historical work is what gives the foreign estimate its credibility as a starting point, even before JORC verification is complete.

Chief Executive Officer of Atomic Eagle, Phil Hoskins, framed the estimate as a foundation for future work, not a finished number: 

"The Madaouela Project represents a uranium resource of significant scale, defined through an extensive body of historical drilling and technical work. What is particularly compelling is the combination of size, grade and the breadth of prior studies completed, which together provide a strong technical foundation for future work."

What Still Needs Verifying

Atomic Eagle's own supporting disclosure specifically addresses the gaps between the foreign estimate and a JORC-compliant equivalent. The company has not yet independently verified the density (specific gravity) values applied across mineralization domains. Nor have the QA/QC procedures used for radiometric probe calibration and chemical assay verification been independently assessed. JORC also sets out different requirements regarding reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction (RPEEE) and more prescriptive disclosure obligations under JORC Table 1 than under NI 43-101, meaning classification outcomes could shift once that framework is applied. The company states it has not identified any information that would cause it to question the reliability of the historical numbers, but stresses that these are separate from the question of whether the estimate can be formally reported as a JORC Mineral Resource.

There is also an unresolved pricing question sitting underneath the classification issue. The pit-shell optimization, which defines what counts as economically extractable material, was run at US$70 per pound, well below the price at which uranium has traded through 2026. That price assumption has not yet been updated as part of the JORC conversion work, meaning the scope of material ultimately classified as a compliant resource, not just its regulatory label, remains an open technical question rather than a settled one.

Project & Regional Context

Madaouela sits near Arlit in north-central Niger, within the Tim Mersoi Basin, one of the world's most established sandstone-hosted uranium districts and long a center of French CEA (Commission Exploration Atomique) and Orano production. The project's deposits extend across 17 kilometers from Miriam in the south to Marilyn and Marianne in the north; the Marilyn and Marianne deposits were first discovered by the French CEA between 1960 and 1965. They are hosted within permeable sandstone of the Guezouman Formation. GoviEx acquired the project in 2007 and carried out systematic infill drilling on progressively tighter grids through 2021, the work that now underpins today's foreign estimate.

Why the Conversion Timeline Is the Signal to Watch

Atomic Eagle is targeting conversion of Madaouela from a foreign estimate to a JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) in the fourth quarter of 2026, running alongside the 2-year window set under the project's newly negotiated mining convention to update feasibility studies and reapply for environmental approvals. In a companion announcement released the same day confirming the mining convention's terms, Atomic Eagle stated that resource verification and technical optimization work at Madaouela has already commenced, indicating the conversion process is now underway rather than still pending.

For an ASX-listed developer, JORC compliance is the technical precondition for eventual reserve declaration, formal development studies, and the kind of institutional financing process that requires a bankable, independently verifiable resource base rather than an inherited foreign number. Until that conversion work, including database validation, QA/QC review, and reassessment of RPEEE under current parameters, is complete, the 116.5 million-pound figure serves as a scale indicator rather than an investment-grade resource. That makes the fourth-quarter target, not the headline tonnage, the more immediate catalyst for investors. It signals how quickly Madaouela can move from a reacquired asset to a project with a compliant technical base to build on.

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