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“A Great Stepping Stone”: 24% Resource Increase at Muntanga Project - Atomic Eagle CEO Phil Hoskins

MiningStockEducation.com Apr 3, 2026

Summary

Atomic Eagle grew Muntanga's uranium resource 24% to 58.8 million pounds at a drilling cost of about US$0.05 per pound.

Early-stage uranium drilling uses a calibrated gamma probe for grade, running about US$40 per metre against US$200 for diamond core.

The largest Muntanga drill program in almost 20 years starts this month, testing eight new targets plus two near Chisabuka.

A re-released feasibility study puts the project's economics on scale: growing past a 3.5 million tonne-per-year plant is what makes it financeable.

In Niger, management is negotiating the return of the 116 million-pound Mataweela resource, expropriated from Govex in 2024 and unpriced in the shares.

Bill Powers's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Powers frames the discussion around the 24% Muntanga resource increase since the previous interview and asks Hoskins to account for what was accomplished.
  • He presses on the questions North American listeners would raise, including whether the gamma-probe drilling approach complies with US and Canadian standards, and prompts updates on the feasibility study re-release, the Niger asset, treasury and ETF inclusion.

Phil Hoskins's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Hoskins argues the 24% uplift from 47.4 million to 58.8 million pounds, delivered with about US$700,000 of drilling at roughly US$0.05 per pound, validates the exploration approach at Muntanga, while cautioning that the unit cost may not reflect future exploration.
  • He explains that exploratory drilling uses a calibrated gamma probe rather than RC or diamond, at about US$40 per metre all-in versus roughly US$200 per metre for diamond, giving fast vertical coverage to about 100 m depth, with diamond and RC work deferred to the end of the 2026 field season to verify grades.
  • He says he is confident uranium mineralization will be found in the new targets but that the open question is how much and at what grade, and notes only about 25% to 30% of the Chisabuka area has been touched so far.
  • He argues the project only becomes financeable at a larger scale than the re-released study's 3.5 million tonne per annum and roughly 2.2 million pounds a year, that 2026 is about the resource growth needed to size it, and that a final investment decision is still some way off.
  • He treats the 116 million pound Mataweela resource in Niger as option value not reflected in the share price, and says recent North American investor feedback was that Atomic Eagle looks undervalued against other African peers.