Welcome to CEO Insights. I'm Marilyn de Guzman with Investing News Network. My guest this episode is Murray Hill, CEO and managing director of Elevate Uranium, a uranium exploration company based in Perth, Australia. Hi Murray. Hi Marilyn. How are you? I'm good, thanks. Thanks for joining me today. So let's get to the meat of our conversation and we're talking about uranium. Uranium has been getting a lot of attention both from the pricing side of things and uh in from the investment side of things.


How has that been impacting your operations from the exploration uh perspective? Yeah, interesting isn't it? Uh two years ago I was ringing brokers trying to raise money and they didn't really want to take my call. Uh now I'm getting two calls a day for the last 3 weeks. Uh I'm fielding a lot of uh zoom calls with with potential investors and we've done a we've done a virtual road show um no deal road show I will add we have got money in the bank we don't need to raise


money and uh just gauging level interest and there's an enormous level interest out there so what it means obviously is that we now have investors coming to us and the and the um it's it's a lot easier to access capitals let's say um you know previously we've had to chase the capital now there's investors coming to us saying do you want some capital? So that that that makes a big difference to us and hence uh the ability for expiration companies like us to um increase their exploration programs um


substantially. Really what's driving this momentum and do you see this sort of continuing through sustaining in the in the foreseeable future? What's driving the momentum is uh that uranium price has gone from sort of $18 a pound four years ago to $70 a pound now. And that's being driven by supply demand math. Uh we have a shortage of of uranium supply to feed the current nuclear fleet. Uh and that gap is widening as time progresses. So we need to incentivize your own production. The only way to incentivize


production is for the underlying commodity price to go up. So it's gone up. Uh but it needs to go up further to to incentivize further production because I don't think many companies going to come production at this level. I was just reading the IAEA report. Uh more and more companies uh view energy as a res so nuclear energy as a resilient, reliable and lowcarbon energy source. You know, when you when you compare it to coal, obviously a lot of carbon generation um fossil fuels and then you go down the


the um uh renewables path. Uh we need a backup supply for renewables. So, you're building two power supply units uh instead of just one because they don't they're not uh reliable. uh sun doesn't shine 24 hours a day. Well, it doesn't here in Australia. I know it does in Canada. Um so, you know, that presents a problem. And then you get on the electrification part. Um batteries store energy. Batteries discharge energy. Batteries don't generate energy. So, where's it going to come from? I was


reading just recently a country with 50 million vehicles. If 1 million or 2% of those 2% very small number were electric and charged on the grid at night, then the demand on the grid would double. Now, a lot of these countries are talking about going to 100% EVs. Where is the energy going to come from? So, we're going to need an enormous amount of energy uh over the coming years, right? And it's got to be carbon-f free. What is nuclear? Nuclear is reliable base load, carbon-f free energy, and of


all the energy sources is one of the least expensive. So, yeah, I see I see this continuing for a long period of time, right? And you know with a number of uranium focused exploration companies out there um you know experiencing probably the same growth that you are why should investors be looking at uh your company at elevate uranium and what sets you apart? Yeah well we're all leveraged to uranium price as you say uh but what sets us apart is we're probably one of the most active uranium


exploration companies on the list on the ASX. Um we're we've got um the largest land position for nuclear fuels in Namibia. We've had four discoveries in the last four years. These discoveries are uranium that's less than 25 m deep. So, and when you're in Canada, you wouldn't quite understand very shallow uranium deposits. You know, most of yours in the Atabaska basin are really deep. So, our mining uh is very simple, very straightforward. Um, so what we're doing with these, we've we've put it,


we've estimated a resource in the copies project, uh, a 20 million pound maiden resource. We're going to uh we're doing drilling now. We got three drill rigs working flare out. Um 75 holes per week. They're drilling five holes per day each drill rig. 25 m deep holes. Um and they're costing us about $1,000. So it's inexpensive expiration. We're looking at putting a a increasing the um resource with an update in um end of this month and another one in Q1 next year. Then


the other projects we've got here Capri, we're looking at um drilling to put uh to estimate resources on those. So we we're taking pro we're taking sort of our largest land position to expiration where we we've discovered and taking it to an inferred resource which we're working on with a couple of them now. Uh and then we're taking that like copies through to the next level. Uh so we're looking at um adding uh significant um uh I suppose confidence level to that


from going to inferred to indicated and then we've got the upgrade process. It's the upgrade process we developed inhouse. It's a process. It's a beneficiation process designed for these official style laws that rejects the bulk of the the mass. So prior to leeching, the leeching is the highest unit cost operation in a processing facility. So what we do is if we can reduce the mass with this upgrade process to less than 5%. Instead of leeching 100% of the oil, we're only leeching less than 5%. That's a huge


cost benefit. So this process reduces the capital costs by 50%. That reduces the opex opex the operating cost by 50% compared to conventional processing for these style of boards. That's a that's a huge cost reduction. And what it also does is it because it produces a really low mass highrade concentrate. It gives us optionality. So we could leech and refine that to produce yellowate or we could take it to a third party um and a third party could leech it for us. Hence we have to build a leech refinary. So


that gives us optionality in what we do. And then I haven't even mentioned Australia. we've got assets in Australia. So, we've done some work on those. Uh over, you know, the three years since we've had them, we've been unable to travel for the most part of that. So, now we can we've gone gone and done some work around them. Uh and we're planning drill programs for those both to ex expand the angular resorts and also to greater understand uh project which has got grades in excess of 10,000


ppm in it. So, a lot of work to do uh and differentiating us from our peers. you know, we've got large land position for nuclear fuels in Namibia, full discoveries in four years. Uh resource estimates coming through um and increasing number of pounds in the ground. We've got uh our upgrade process which differentiates us and then assets in Australia. So sort of geographically diverse, right? So uh talking about your Namibia project, so it looks like you know you're ramping up your your operations


there. Could you talk about some of sort of the timeline to get you to production? Uh what can the investor community expect on that front? Yeah, so sort of you when you look at the pyramid and the pipeline of assets we've got, you know, copies we've taken from uh a discovery to now a resource, an inferred resource and and as you know an inferred resource in the jaw code, you can't announce financial metrics around a study. So we need to take that increase the confidence level to an indicated


resource. So, but we are working on expanding that inferred resource. As I said before, we've got updates in in um uh end of this month and then Q1 next year. So, then we'll once once we've got that Q1 update out, we think the resource will be a sufficient size that will move down the next path of development and the yarn price will be a sufficient uh level. So, we will look at going to indicator drilling. So, put a couple of drill rigs dedicated to indicator drilling. Um and then we'll


run a metallological test program on upgrade in parallel and that'll feed into a scoping study. That'll then uh provide an estimate of the capital cost and the operating cost and also uh discuss optionality around how we you know take the the uh concentrate forward whether we take it to a third party or we leech it ourselves. And then once that's done we then move into the next level of study which will mean a pilot plan on upgrade. uh we need to do a pilot plan to ensure that investors are


confident that uh upgrade works and how it works and take that to the next level. So we'll move that down the pathway to production whilst at the same time we're taking these discoveries to a resource est status. So, a lot of work down that timeline um over the next two years. And can you talk a little bit more about the location Namibia, you know, the what kind of jurisdiction it's in terms of your operations? Uh talk a bit more about that. Love Namibia. Um I've been going there since 2008. Um been in this


job for 11 years. Uh and been going there, you know, apart from during co three times a year. uh took the family there when the kids were 10 to 11 back in 2011. Uh did a self-drive tour. Absolutely loved it. Absolutely love it. The people are fantastic. People are friendly. Uh from a uranium perspective, it's the only country in the world that has a dedicated uranium association. So the Namibian uranium association is a conduit between explorers, developers, and producers and general public


stakeholders, government. They do a fantastic job of promoting uh the uranium industry and the culture in Namibia. Russian uranium mine have been operating on a continuous basis since 1976. That's 47 years of continuous operating. The longest running uh continuously operating uh uranium project in the world. So that's two plus generations of Namibians that understand uranium mining and processing, aren't scared of it. Right? So uh you know on that the Huso project's been developed


in the last seven years. Um Langanger Heinri was developed before that Arano Straopy project was developed. So there's there's no hurdles to getting um uranium projects developed. It's the fourth largest producer of uranium in the world and has been for a long time. Uh and a very supportive government. So uh people are great. I love the people. A lot of humor um and a lot of respect for each other. So it it's a great place to operate and really enjoy it and you know it's inexpensive exploration makes


it even better for us and um you know you mentioned your Australia projects can you talk a bit more about that and the work that's being done there? Yeah. So, Australia projects we picked up just before CO hit. So, we're all under lockdown. Perth is where I live is is the most isolated city in the world based on the distance to the next uh nearest capital city. During CO we reinforced our position as the most isolated city in the world. We couldn't travel anywhere. We couldn't go


to our projects. So, it's only just recently we've had been able to go there. So, we've done some geochemical work. We've done some seismic work on them. Uh we've identified that the Angela project which has got 31 million pound at 1300 ppm just south of Bella Springs in the Northern Territory. Uh we've discovered or found another lens underneath the current the mineralized lens. We want to go and drill that to see if it's mineralized. Manurva project uh north of Ellis Springs. We want to go


test that. It's been hasn't been drilled since it was discovered in 1978. 10 holes have greater than 10,000 ppm uranium grades. We want to go and do some diamond holes into that, understand the structure and then work out how we're going to u explore on that and expand it. So, a lot of work to do there. Uh and we're just planning those drill programs now. It looks like it's uh it's a very interesting time to be in the uranium space right now. Well, it's a fantastic time to be in the space. The


whole sentiment towards nuclear has changed around the world. You know, we're seeing the lives of reactors being extended. uh we're seeing governments pushing down the pathway of nuclear um and uranium's you know the feat source for nuclear. So the fact that uranium price is moving strongly it's got a long way to go and I think it'll be sustained above $100 a pound for a long period of time uh to incentivize production um you know it makes capital easier for us as explorers um and we can get on with our


job of exploring and then moving down the path of development production. So it is very exciting time an exciting time for investors too. I it's an opportunity for them. When you look at the last boom you know some share prices went from cents to you know tens of dollars. Um you know we we're only just starting to move up on that curve. So it it's you know we spoke yesterday uh with Guy Keller from Tribeca. You know the nuclear is 10% of the world's uh electricity production but the whole


uranium sector the market cap of the whole uranium sector is smaller than the third largest iron ore producer in Western Australia. So it's just totally out of whack. So we can see the the sector rerating tremendously. So as an investor it's a it's a fantastic opportunity uh to get into uranium and uh enjoy the ride. Right. Well, thanks again, Marie, for joining me today and sharing your insights. Thank you very much. And thanks everyone for watching. Join us again next time for another


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