Muntanga East Extends Heap Leach Case With Up to 86% Uranium Recovery

Atomic Eagle has completed metallurgical test work on diamond core from the recently discovered Muntanga East uranium deposit at its 100%-owned Muntanga Uranium Project in Zambia. Bottle roll and column leach tests returned uranium recoveries of approximately 81% to 86%, with extraction substantially complete after approximately 20 days and acid consumption of approximately 3 kilograms per metric ton (kg/t) over that period. The results, achieved on lower-grade material than earlier programs tested at several of the project's other deposits, show Muntanga's favorable heap leach metallurgy extending beyond the historical deposits and will feed into ongoing technical studies.

Company Overview

Atomic Eagle Limited (ASX: AEU | OTCQX: AEUXF) is a uranium development company advancing a portfolio of uranium assets in Africa. Its flagship asset is the 100%-owned Muntanga Uranium Project in Zambia, which holds a JORC mineral resource of 58.8 million pounds (lb) at 309 parts per million (ppm) U3O8 and is the focus of resource growth and optimization programs aimed at supporting a larger-scale development opportunity. The company also holds a 60% interest in the Madaouela Uranium Project in Niger, a development project with extensive historical drilling, feasibility-level studies and an established Mining Convention with the Republic of Niger. Madaouela hosts a foreign estimate of 116.5 million lb at 1,282 ppm U3O8, prepared under NI 43-101 and not reported under the JORC Code.

Muntanga East Test Program

Mintek in South Africa ran the program on 2 representative composite samples prepared from diamond drill core obtained specifically for metallurgical evaluation after the Muntanga East resource was delineated. The program tested how much uranium the material releases, how much acid it consumes and whether it holds up physically on a heap leach pad, where crushed ore is stacked and irrigated with acid solution.

Material was crushed to a nominal top size of 25 millimeters and run through diagnostic leach testing, which shows how the uranium is split between minerals that dissolve easily and those that do not, plus bottle roll and column leach testing, along with heap leach geotechnical assessments. The composites carried an average uranium head grade, the grade of the material fed into a process, of approximately 167 ppm U3O8, lower than the grades historically tested at several of the project's other deposits.

Chief Executive Officer of Atomic Eagle, Phil Hoskins, tied low reagent use to the project's ability to recover lower-grade material economically:

"One of the defining strengths of the Muntanga Project is its ability to achieve high uranium recoveries through simple heap leach processing with low reagent consumption. This allows lower grade uranium mineralisation to be mined and recovered economically."

Bottle Roll & Column Leach Results

In bottle roll tests, where crushed samples are leached in rotating containers, the 2 composites returned uranium recoveries of 85.9% and 81.9% after 25 days. Acid consumption held at approximately 3 kilograms per metric ton (kg/t) through the test period, and uranium dissolution was effectively complete after approximately 7 days. The results indicate that approximately 80% of the uranium in the ore occurs in minerals that dissolve readily under conventional acid heap leach conditions.

Column leach tests used 1-meter-high columns operated under conditions representative of a heap leach. Both composites recovered approximately 81% of their uranium, at 81.0% and 80.8%. Dissolution curves flattened after approximately 15 to 20 days, by which point recoveries had approached final levels while acid consumption stood at approximately 3 kg/t.

Leaching continued for 62 days in total and added modest further recovery, while total acid consumption rose to between 7.0 and 7.6 kg/t. The column results show that the majority of the uranium can be recovered with very low acid consumption, below the average achieved across the broader Muntanga Project.

Heap Leach Characteristics

Particle size analysis showed low fines content, meaning little very fine particle material, and minimal fines generation during leaching, which reduces the risk of the heap losing permeability. Stacking assessments simulating a 6-meter heap returned favorable bulk density and porosity.

Hydraulic conductivity, the rate at which solution passes through the stacked material, measured between approximately 4,396 and 4,537 liters per square meter per hour. That is more than 4 times the design threshold typically required for heap leaching operations, and the material displays physical characteristics consistent with efficient solution percolation and uranium extraction.

Hoskins described what the deposit's depth, location and metallurgy could add to the wider project:

"The combination of Muntanga East’s shallow mineralisation, close proximity to the central resource area and favourable metallurgy provides confidence it will contribute towards enhancing the scale and economics of the Muntanga Project."

Next Steps

Atomic Eagle will incorporate the Muntanga East metallurgical results into ongoing technical studies supporting the advancement of the Muntanga Project. The outcomes provide additional confidence in the potential integration of Muntanga East into future mine development planning.

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