Peninsula Energy (ASX:PEN) is seeing improved operational performance during the current June quarter at its flagship Lance Projects located in Wyoming, U.S.
The daily rate of uranium production has now increased to above 400 pounds per day, a 40% increase from the March 2017 quarter daily average.
Production in the June quarter is expected to be circa 30,000 pounds of uranium oxide which is a 20% improvement over the March 2017 quarter.
The Lance Projects have a mine life of at least 20 years, underpinned by 53.7 million pounds of uranium, the largest uranium ISR JORC-Code compliant resource in North America.
Multiple headers houses are used to extract uranium and currently seven header houses are in simultaneous operation.
Construction on header house 8 is now complete and the roll out of header houses 9 and 10 will continue.
The improvement in production evident this quarter continues to support guidance for the year of a minimum of 150,000 pounds uranium oxide for the 2017 calendar year.
Uranium contracts
Current production target levels have been set to meet Lance Projects sourced delivery commitments under existing term contracts.
In the current low uranium spot price environment, the company has contracted to purchase 900,000 pounds uranium oxide over the next 3 years at an average cost of US$25 per pound to meet additional non-Lance Project sourced delivery commitments under term contracts.
With up to 7.7 million pounds uranium oxide of remaining contracted sales through to 2030 at a weighted average delivery price of US$54 per pound, Peninsula is able to limit its exposure to the spot market during periods of low prices.
In summary, Peninsula continues to buy its uranium at much lower prices than which it is selling it.