Peninsula Energy Ltd (ASX:PEN) has advised that the Commissioners of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have ruled in favour of the company and denied a petition to appeal by the Natural Resources Defence Council and the Powder River Basin Resource Council (together, the Joint Intervenors).
The Joint Intervenors petitioned to appeal against the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board’s (ASLB) previous dismissal of all remaining environmental contentions (EC) brought against the Lance Projects Central Processing Plant and Ross Project Area in Wyoming U.S.
Gus Simpson, managing director and chief executive officer for Peninsula, commented:
"The company is pleased that the Commissioners deliberation of the facts support the findings of the comprehensive studies completed by the company and the reviews of these conducted by multiple government agencies."
Details
In its January 2015 ruling the ASLB determined that the contentions raised by the Joint Intervenors were unable to be substantiated by the evidence presented.
In denying the petition to appeal the previous dismissal, the NRC Commissioners have reiterated that the Joint Intervenors are unable to substantiate the claims upon which the contentions are based.
Contentions raised by the Joint Intervenors were originally heard by the ASLB between 28 September 2014 and 1 October 2014.
The issues under consideration at the time were whether the final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) issued by the NRC failed to or inadequately addressed certain aspects of groundwater conditions.
The NRC Commissioners found that the SEIS did address groundwater conditions adequately and have now dismissed the petition to appeal.
Uranium production
In June 2016 Peninsula delivered its first drummed uranium from the Lance Projects in the U.S. state of Wyoming.
The first shipment delivered to the conversion facility contained 16,000 pounds of uranium.
Revenue of US$120 million is forecast from delivery commitments of 2.15 million pounds of U3O8 over the next 5 years alone.
Production ramp up
Lance expects to achieve targeted Stage 1 production of 600,000-700,000 pounds of uranium in 1H 2017.
Production to date indicates 200,000-300,000 pounds of uranium will be produced for 2016.
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