Aim-listed Arkle Resources last year continued its strategy as a gold, zinc and lithium explorer, working in Ireland and Botswana, but highlights in a preliminary results statement for the year ended December 31, 2025, that it has since expanded into the uranium sector.

In January, the company announced a ‘transformational’  acquisition of four uranium licences in Namibia's Erongo region, saying this repositions the company as an energy metals explorer with uranium at its centre.

Arkle now operates across three Tier 1 mining jurisdictions in Namibia, Botswana and Ireland.

“The single most important development of the year was the board’s decision to pursue uranium in Namibia. We believe the beginning of a sustained global nuclear expansion cycle is under way.

“Governments worldwide are recognising that nuclear power is essential to meeting both energy security and decarbonisation goals. Supply remains constrained and demand is growing,” chairperson John Teeling highlights.

He points out that Arkle’s strategy was cemented in January with the acquisition of an 85% interest in Namibia Uranium, which holds four exploration licences in the Erongo region contiguous to Rössing, Trekkopje and Marenica, which are some of the world's largest uranium deposits.

A sampling programme conducted by the vendor during 2025 returned uranium grades of up to 3 855 ppm.

Arkle’s acquisition was supported with a significantly oversubscribed £1.7-million placing to fund exploration, with activity starting on the ground within weeks.

The geophysical surveys have been completed and in May, the company announced that interpretation of the geophysical data had defined multiple high-priority drill targets of two distinct mineralisation styles, and that the drilling programme had been accelerated, with about 4 000 m of reverse circulation drilling now planned across both paleochannel and uraniferous leucogranite targets starting in the coming weeks.

Arkle also bolstered its team to support the uranium acquisition.

In Botswana, a sampling programme confirmed lithium in all 20 samples tested from the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans in February 2025. Eight of those samples exceeded 1% magnesium. In July 2025, Arkle was awarded a third prospecting licence covering 775 km², more than doubling its total licence area to 1 612 km².

Geophysical surveys in the fourth quarter extended the confirmed brine system across all three licences. The environmental-impact assessment is advancing, and Arkle expects to begin drilling this year to assess lithium brine concentrations at depth.

As part of its transformation, Arkle also identified what was nonpriority for exploration expenditure.

Meanwhile, reflecting on the company’s assets in Ireland, it notes that, at Stonepark, in County Limerick, where Arkle holds a 22.36% interest, its partner Group Eleven Resources completed a four-hole drilling programme last year at the Carrickittle West prospect and delivered results that have identified two new priority targets of Kilteely and Bruff, the bulk of which sit on Stonepark ground.

The geological indicators at this zinc project are “very encouraging”, Teeling avers.

At Mine River in County Wicklow, despite some results including visible gold, the company was unable to prove the continuity necessary to reach commerciality, and the four licences were not renewed following project appraisal.

In Donegal, while the target vein at Meeneragh was found in all four drill holes and the company is aware there is gold there, the board has concluded that shareholders’ capital is better deployed in advancing the energy metals portfolio, Teeling explains.

Arkle is reviewing options for the Donegal licence which may include forming a joint venture or divestment.

At Aughrim in Wicklow, the company’s earlier sampling identified anomalous lithium, tin, tungsten and beryllium, and the company is now assessing those licences potentially as a tungsten prospect, driven by growing global demand for the metal in defence and energy-transition applications.

“I have been founding and building mining companies for over 40 years. The portfolio we have now assembled – uranium in Namibia, lithium in Botswana, zinc in Limerick and tungsten potential in Wicklow – offers shareholders diversified exposure to the metals that will power the energy transition and the expanding digital economy, all in Tier 1 mining jurisdictions,” Teeling posits.