- A shallow RC and open-hole percussion drilling program of up to 2,500 meters has commenced.
- Program designed to target the continuation of westward-dipping mineralization observed at the adjoining Letlhakane property.
- Historic assays from a 2024 RC drilling program at Serule returned between 196 and 1,247 ppm U3O8.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leviathan Metals Corp. (“Leviathan”, the “Company”) (LVX – TSXV, LVXFF – OTC, 0GP – FSE) is pleased to announce that a combined Reverse Circulation (“RC”) and open-hole percussion drilling program of up to 2,500 meters is underway at its 100%-owned Serule and Foley Projects (“Serule”, “Foley” and the “Projects”), in the Central District of eastern Botswana.
Drilling at Serule has been designed to target the continuation of westward-dipping mineralization observed at ASX-listed Lotus Resources Limited’s adjoining Letlhakane property (“Lotus”, “Letlhakane” respectively), at which Indicated Mineral Resources of 71.6Mt @ 360ppm U3O8 (containing 56.8 Mlbs) and Inferred Mineral Resources of 70.6Mt @ 366ppm U3O8 (containing 56.9 Mlbs) have been reported1. A north-south fence of eight RC drillholes completed at Serule in 2024 by the former property owner a short distance west of the shared Letlhakane property boundary (Figure 1) intersected gently westward dipping mineralized shale layers, forming a four kilometer wide zone at depths of between 65 and 130 meters. Intervals from the 2024 program range between 2 and 10 meters in thickness, and the grades based on laboratory analyses are between 196 and 1,247 ppm U3O8; the thickest interval (10 meters) has a grade of 415 ppm U3O8.
Leviathan Chief Operations Officer, Jeremy Crozier, remarked: “We are pleased to have commenced drilling of our Botswana uranium portfolio with the objective of demonstrating the potential of Serule to host further Letlhakane-type mineralization. Drilling works completed in 2024 by the former owner confirmed the continuation of such mineralization onto Serule; we will now seek to build on this further westwards through a simple low-cost program. Serule is very well-served indeed in respect to road, rail and power infrastructure making exploration work at the property straightforward, and casting a favorable light on potential future property development.
Drilling at our Central Project on the KCB is ongoing and we are excited to be drilling two excellent targets simultaneously. Our work at Serule and Foley is aimed at harnessing further opportunity in a timely manner”.
Drill testing for possible extensions to mineralization to the southern flank of Letlhakane at the Letse target is also being undertaken, as is first pass drilling at the Foley project, which lies 25 kilometers north of the Serule in a comparable geological setting at which surface radiometric anomalism was identified by the former property owner in 2024.
Drilling works are being performed by Gesondheid (Pty) Ltd. trading as Rotsdrill Exploration (“Rotsdrill”) using a Super Rock 5000 Drill Rig. Rotsdrill draw on extensive experience in Botswana – including Letlhakane -gained over more than a decade of operations (Figure 2). Wireline logging comprising gamma logging and other techniques will be performed by Digital Borehole Surveying Botswana (Pty) Ltd. of Midrand, South Africa, upon completion of drilling.
Diamond drilling and geological interpretation at the Company’s Central Project on the Kalahari Copper Belt is ongoing, with market updates expected in the coming days. Slightly over 6,000 meters of diamond coring have now been completed; assays remain outstanding and will be reported once received.
Figure 1: Location of Leviathan’s Serule Project relative to ASX-listed Lotus Resources Limited’s adjoining Letlhakane property.
Figure 2: (a) open hole percussion drilling under way at Serule, (b) sample chip board: each sample represents one meter of drilling and the samples within the green box are thought to represent a target interval (c) scintillometer in use on a bagged sample.
About the Serule and Foley Projects
The Serule Project adjoins the Letlhakane Uranium Project - owned by ASX-listed Lotus Resources Ltd. to its west. Letlhakane is hosted within gently dipping tabular layers within the lower Karoo Mea Arkose Formation at depths of less than 5m to over 100m in the west, within a broad paleochannel that had a westerly flow. Work to date shows that the mineralized layers at Letlhakane extend downstream onto the Serule Project at depths of between 65 and 130 meters based on a single line of eight RC holes drilled in 2024 by Afri-Uranium.
These RC holes were spaced 530 and 830 meters apart, and all except those and the northern and southern ends of the line intersected uranium mineralization, interpreted to be within one or two gently dipping layers in each hole,
Another area on the Serule Project that is of interest is the Letse target, which appears to be the upstream SE extension of one of the subsidiary channels of the Letlhakane deposit. The historic drilling in this area intersected low-grade mineralization (100 – 220 ppm U3O8) in 1 – 5 m thick layers at depths of 13 to 45 m below surface.
The uranium-bearing intervals intersected in the RC drill holes completed at Serule in 2024 are hosted within beds of grey-coloured siltstones and shales of the Mea Arkose Formation, presumably controlled by the reducing nature of these rocks. It seems probable that the mineralization in these holes is of the syn-sedimentary humate type as described at Letlhakane (Brough, et al. 20132), in which case the uranium was deposited during or shortly after emplacement of these sediments. Pyrite and organic material are present and are likely to have acted as reducing agents, important for uranium precipitation. At Serule, mineralization occurs within one or two layers, typically between 1 and 15 meters in thickness.
Geology
The Projects lie on the eastern margin of the Kalahari Karoo basin, where the lower Groups of the Carboniferous to Jurassic-aged sedimentary rocks of the Karoo Supergroup are found and which rest unconformably on the Archean basement rocks. The Karoo Supergroup is the most extensive stratigraphic unit in southern Africa, deposited in a series of vast retro-arc basins that formed behind the Cape Fold Mountain range commencing at around 330 Ma.
The formations present within the Projects are those of the Ecca and Beaufort Groups. The host of the uranium mineralization is the Mea Arkose Formation, consisting of interbedded sandstones with subordinate mudstones, coal and conglomerate beds, deposited within an open west-flowing paleochannel, possibly at the eastern margin of the larger sedimentary basin.
The general dip of the Karoo within the area of the Projects is gently to the southwest and west. Regionally, the area is affected by a series of NW-SE striking faults which are reported to have a strike-slip component (Brough et al., 2013). The uppermost unit in the area is the Kalahari Group, which is Tertiary to Quaternary in age, consists of sand and sandy soils up to 4.5 m thick, and is poorly developed within the area of the Projects. Uranium mineralization at Serule is hosted within beds of grey-coloured siltstones and shales of the Mea Arkose Formation, probably of what is termed ‘syn-sedimentary humate type’ mineralization, as described at Letlhakane. At Serule, mineralization occurs within one or two very gently-dipping layers, typically between 1 and 15 meters in thickness and extending approximately 4 kilometers laterally (north-south), presumed to reflect a broad paleo drainage. The stratigraphy and mineralization dip towards the south on this section, within an overall westward sloping drainage.
The target deposit types at the Projects are the ‘Basal Channel’ or ‘Tabular’ sub-types of the ‘Sandstone-Hosted’ uranium deposit class. Sandstone-Hosted uranium deposits occur in carbon and/or pyrite-bearing fluvial (or less frequently marine) arkosic, medium-to-coarse-grained sandstones that contain, are interbedded with, and are typically bounded – partially or fully - by less permeable horizons. Uranium derived from U-rich source rocks passes through sandstone in groundwater flow and is precipitated from solution under reducing conditions, as triggered by the presence of a variety of reducing agents. In the case of Serule, pyrite and organic material are present and are the likely reducing agents.
Qualified Person and Data Verification
Graham Norton (Pr. Sci. Nat.), a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release relating to the Central Project and the Serule Uranium Project. Mr. Norton is a consultant for Leviathan.
Neither the Qualified Person nor Leviathan has verified the scientific, technical or other information disclosed in respect of the Adjacent Properties.
About Leviathan Metals Corp.
Leviathan Metals Corp., previously known as Leviathan Gold Ltd., is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company listed on the TSXV (LVX) and Germany (0GP).
On behalf of the Company
Luke Norman, Chief Executive Officer and Director
For further information, please visit the Company website www.leviathanmetals.com, the Company’s profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com, or contact:
Luke Norman,
Direct: (778) 238-2333
Toll Free: 1(833) 923-3334
Email: info@leviathanmetals.com
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No securities regulatory authority has either approval or disapproved of the contents of this press release.
Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. Leviathan cautions that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by many material factors, many of which are beyond Leviathan’s control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to whether exploration activities on the Company’s properties will result in commercially viable quantities of mineralized materials; the possibility of changes to project parameters as plans continue to be refined; the ability to execute planned exploration and future drilling programs; the ability to obtain qualified workers, financing, permits, approvals, and equipment in a timely manner or at all and on reasonable terms; changes in commodity and securities markets; non-performance by contractual counterparties; and general business, geopolitical and economic conditions. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Although Leviathan has attempted to identify important risks and factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors and risks that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Consequently, undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking statements. In addition, all forward-looking statements in this press release are given as of the date hereof. Leviathan disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, save and except as may be required by applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified by this disclaimer.
1 https://lotusresources.com.au/projects/mineral-resources-and-ore-reserves and ASX Announcement “Lotus increases Indicated Mineral Resources by 65% at Letlhakane Uranium Project” dated December 6, 2024.
2 Brough, C. P., Bowell, R. J., Grogan, J. M., Randabel, J. and Woolrich, P., (2013). The Letlhakane Project: a Case Study in Complex Uranium Mineralogy and its Geometallurgical Implications.
Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/17933211-3ead-4460-a1c0-c2629bce2727
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/94708c51-08e3-452c-8a12-d47037e683f6
