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Anatolia Energy submits EIA for Temrezli Uranium Project

Last updated: 08:17 24 Mar 2015 GMT, First published: 09:17 24 Mar 2015 GMT

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Anatolia Energy (ASX:AEK) has lodged a landmark application for an Environmental Impact Assessment of its advanced Temrezli Uranium Project in Turkey.

The current JORC resource of 13.3 million pounds of U3O8 at Temrezli would see an initial mine life of 12 years based on a recent Pre-Feasibility Study and could be one of the world’s lowest cost producers of U3O8 with a cash cost of US$16.89 per pound. 

Anatolia's wholly owned local Turkish operating subsidiary, Adur Madencilik Pty Ltd submitted the Environmental Impact Assessment Application to the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning.

The Project is located entirely within its 100% owned Operation Licences which have been granted approval for an initial period of 10 years to 2023, renewable for up to 60 years.

The EIA incorporates the construction of a central processing plant (CPP) at the Temrezli site with a planned production capacity of 1.2 Mlbs per annum of U308

It would process uranium bearing solutions from the Temrezli well field with potential to process uranium-loaded resin transported from any satellite uranium deposits developed in the future from Adur’s other projects in the region. 

The EIA is based on a current Resource of 5.2 million tonnes grading 1,157ppm eU308 for 13.3 million pounds of U308, from which 9.9 million pounds of U308 are produced over life of mine.

Anatolia’s managing director, Paul Cronin said:

“Submission of the initial EIA is a significant milestone for Anatolia and takes the Company another step closer towards achieving our objective of actively participating in Turkey’s developing nuclear power industry. 

"We have strong relationships with our regulators in Turkey, and I have no doubt that the recent appointments of Cevat Err and Tom Young, ensures that we have a first class management team capable of permitting, building and operating the Temrezli uranium project. 

"We are on track to see first production in 2016 but 2015 will be a defining period in our company’s history.

"We will continue to advance our project finance discussions, in parallel with our detailed plant design work, which is expected to yield significant capital savings. Whist we aggressively move Temrezli forward to development, we will also maintain our focus on regional exploration, with the intention of defining a resource on Sefaatli in early Q3.”


EIA details and process

The EIA was prepared by SRK Turkey, which has significant experience in obtaining both uranium ISR and Turkish environmental regulations. 

Adur will commence some pre-development activities while permitting and project approvals are underway to ensure full scale development can commence likely in Q4 2015.

The process conducted by MEUP will involve a public meeting to be held typically within four weeks of the EIA application, followed by a Terms of Reference. 

Anatolia will submit the EIA report in accordance with the Terms of Reference. Once the draft EIA is submitted, meetings will be held with the Review and Assessment Committee (RAC) made up of members from various governmental agencies before finalisation.

This period is followed by 10 days of Public Comment, prior to the issue of the final EIA Permit. 

Anatolia said it expects the process to be completed in Q4, 2015.



Analysis

The EIA application continues the path to development of the Temrezli toward production in 2016. This year is pivotal with a significant work program in store for Anatolia.

Temrezli is understood to have significant support from Turkey toward fast tracking the project. Given Turkey's energy import costs at about US$50 billion annually and demand forecast as the fastest growing in Europe, this will assist Anatolia's cause.

Not widely known, Turkey has embarked on an ambitious nuclear program, commissioning Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) in 2013 to build four 1,200 megawatt (MW) reactors.

The Turkish government is understood to want at least 5 percent of its electricity generation to come from nuclear energy in under a decade, cutting dependency on natural gas largely bought from Russia.

We remain bullish on the prospects for Anatolia in light of compelling project economics and path to permitting approvals, mining and production.

 

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