VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - March 1, 2017) - GoviEx Uranium Inc. (TSX VENTURE:GXU) ("GoviEx" or "Company") is pleased to announce it has commenced a drilling program focused on expanding shallow near-surface uranium mineralization associated with the Miriam Deposit at the Company's Madaouela Uranium Project in Niger (the "Madaouela Project").
GoviEx CEO Daniel Major said, "The key objective of this drilling program is to delineate additional mineral resources amenable to lower-cost, open-pit mining. We are testing a possible Southwest extension of the Miriam Deposit and, if successful, may potentially add to its existing mineral resources and could result in prolonging the Madaouela Project's mine-life beyond that projected in the Company's 2015 Integrated Development Plan, which has the potential to further optimize the Madaouela Project's economics."(1)
The current drilling program is targeting the positive results of the 2016 radon exploration survey, announced November 29, 2016, focused on the area west of the Miriam Deposit. The survey identified a high-priority target zone of approximately one-kilometre wide by five-kilometres long adjacent to and parallel with the Miriam Deposit.
Based on the mining schedule detailed in GoviEx's 2015 Integrated Development Plan, the Miriam Deposit is planned to be the first of the Madaouela Project's six deposits to be developed.(1)
The drilling program represents an opportunity for additional project optimization, which is part of the Company's integrated multi-phase strategy to further advance the fully permitted Madaouela Project, and follows the previously announced appointments of the project finance and uranium off-take advisors.
The 4,000 metre drilling program is to be conducted on a 100-metre grid, sufficient for defining indicated resources at Madaouela, and to an expected average depth of approximately 100 metres, so approximately 40 drill holes. Experienced local drilling contractor ESAFOR has been retained once again. GoviEx has used ESAFOR's services since the beginning of its exploration activities in 2008. Between 2008 and 2013, ESAFOR completed more than 620,000 metres of drilling for GoviEx on the Madaouela Project.
Qualified persons
The scientific and technical information disclosed in this release has been reviewed, verified and approved by Dr. Rob Bowell, a chartered chemist of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a chartered geologist of the Geological Society of London and Fellow of the Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Materials, who is an independent Qualified Person under the terms of National Instrument 43-101 for uranium deposits.
(1) An independent NI 43-101 technical report was prepared for the Madaouela Project in 2015 to a pre-feasibility level of confidence. The report titled "An Updated Integrated Development Plan for the Madaouela Project, Niger" has an effective date of August 11, 2015, and a revision date of August 20, 2015, and is available at GoviEx's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
About GoviEx Uranium
GoviEx is a mineral resource company focused on the exploration and development of uranium properties. GoviEx's principal objective is to become a significant uranium producer through the continued exploration and development of its Mine Permitted Madaouela Project and its other uranium properties in Africa.
