METALS MARKET BOOM | NUCLEAR FUEL The company said it is focusing on its uranium business
expansion, with plans for production at the Tiris Project in Mauritania, north Africa. This is a joint site for extraction of uranium and vanadium. In August 2021 Aura added 5.0 million lb of U3
O8 to its assessment of the site’s uranium
resource, bringing the total to 26 million lbs. In mining terms ‘resource’, refers to deposits that range from speculation to not yet commercially viable. Discoveries that are commercially recoverable using existing technology are referred to as ‘reserves’ but in February Aura announced that an enhanced feasibility study suggested uranium could be mined at a rate of 2 million lb per year and said it had a government stakeholder agreement and major permits in place for the extraction. In an update in March, Aura Energy Managing Director
Dave Woodall said the enhanced study, “confirms the strong financial case for the Tiris Uranium Project… with a relatively short time line for commercial production, the focus is now on the consideration of a final investment decision as early as Q4 2023, which would see commissioning in late 2024 for commercial production in early 2025.” Woodall added, “What differentiates Tiris is the ore
quality that allows free-dig shallow open pit mining. Aura does not require expensive drill and blast operations or capital-hungry infrastructure for crushing and screening. Following simple scrubbing and screening the project will have a leach feed grade of >2,000 ppm U3
O8 resulting in a
downsizing of the leaching circuit that drives competitive operating costs and creates a competitive advantage for Aura Energy in a strengthening uranium market.” He said the project could deliver a ‘life of mine’ production of 25.5 million lbs of U3
O8 .
Thor in the USA Until a few years ago Thor Energy was “not anything to do with uranium mining”, Mark McGeough, non-executive director, said in a presentation last year. Since the early 2000s it has been working in Australia to extract other metals. But now it describes itself as an “exploration company with a focus on uranium and energy metals that are crucial in the shift to a ‘green’ energy economy”. It has prospects for nickel, copper, lithium and gold in both Australia and the USA, but its uranium prospects are in the USA where it says demand is driven by a US desire for security of supply. Thor became involved in uranium some 2.5 years ago
because most of the company’s directors have experience in uranium extraction. McGeough pointed out that at present there is “virtually no production of uranium in the USA” but there were some “clear reasons” why the country should have domestic mining – not least because it is the largest consumer of uranium in the world. The USA takes around 28% of the global total. Thor Energy already owns three uranium projects
in the USA, two in Colorado (Wedding Bell and Radium Mountain) and one in Utah (Vanadium King) which it notes are historically areas rich in uranium, as part of the Uravan mineral belt. This was the original source of uranium in the USA and the area has previously provided 85 million lb of U3
O8 to the US industry. McGeough said there was a
positive attitude towards uranium mining in the region and some areas with strong potential for uranium had not been drilled in the past because the US Department of Energy had reserved it.
In a market presentation in March this year Thor Energy
said initial drilling has confirmed uranium mineralisation at shallow depth and the next phase of drilling is being prepared. The company is planning to get the results of scoping studies at the sites in early 2025 and begin pre- feasibility financing in the second half of that year.
Focus on Canada Canada has been a key uranium supplier for many years and continues to be so – a position that has put it at the heart of extraction for expanding companies. For example, in October 2022 Power Metal Resources
acquired new uranium project interests in Saskatchewan, Canada, which it said “reflected the company’s view that the uranium commodity is to experience a renaissance due to global expansion of nuclear power generation”. It is not alone: the company said the acquisition, Badger Lake Uranium Property in the Athabasca Basin, “is surrounded by claims held by uranium focused companies including Orano SA, Hathor Exploration and NexGen Energy Ltd”. Power Metal originally built its Saskatchewan portfolio
in 2021 and the initial group of seven uranium-focused properties was expanded several times in 2022, first via the acquisition of the Reindeer Lake, Porter Lake and Old Woman Rapids from an established prospector. (The company also acquired the Selta Project, which is targeting uranium and rare earth elements in the Northern Territory of Australia.) Power Metal disposed of one property (Reitenbach) to Teathers Financial in October and another (E-12) to the same company in November. Teathers will itself be renamed as Uranium Energy Exploration and stock exchange listed in London. In January, Power Metal raised £900,000 (US$1.12 bn) in new financing and one target for that investment is expected to be more exploration in the Athabasca Basin region uranium properties. The company has interests in a wide variety of metals
but says its next acquisitions will be focused on opportunities in uranium and lithium. Chief executive Paul Johnson said in October 2022, “we have been particularly active in the development of our Athabasca properties,
Above: Blue Sky discovered a uranium district in the Rio Negro Province of Argentina
www.neimagazine.com | May 2023 | 31
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