Alligator Energy (ASX:AGE) said its field recovery trial for the Samphire uranium project in South Australia demonstrated uranium leaching, recovery, ion exchange, and elution across two test well field patterns, showing in-situ recovery performance across two materially different geological and hydraulic settings, according to a Tuesday Australian bourse filing.

The first pattern is representative of the geological and hydrogeological conditions expected across the areas of the Blackbush deposit targeted for future well field development, underpinning the feasibility study for the Samphire project, the company said. It achieved the in-situ recovery industry benchmark of 70% uranium recovery at around 70 pore volume exchanges, and an average extraction grade of 115 milligrams per liter of triuranium octoxide with a peak flow rate up to 5 liters per second.

The second pattern tested the medium/low-grade, low-flow extremities of the deposit where conditions are not representative of the main resource area, showing that recovery was consistent with behavior in the first pattern.

Reagent consumption for both well patterns aligned with "highly favorable category" under international benchmarks, per the filing.