Uranium producer Energy Fuels Inc's (TSE:EFR) latest independent mineral resource estimate for its Canyon mine project represents a significant increase over the previous estimate.
Total uranium resources at the wholly-owned mine, in Coconino County, Arizona, have been upped by an estimated 1mln pounds, more or less, of triuranium octoxide (U3O8).
The estimate also upgrades a large portion of the resources from the inferred category to the measured and indicated categories.
The resource estimate also quantifies significant copper (Cu) resources, Energy Fuels said.
In total, the Canyon Mine is estimated to contain 139,000 tons of measured and indicated mineral resources with an average grade of 0.88% U3O8 containing 2,434,000 pounds of uranium.
Additionally, the resource estimate identified another 134,000 pounds of uranium in the inferred mineral resource category.
The company believes there is the strong potential to grow the resources in the future through further underground drilling and evaluation.
SEE the press release for the independent resource estimate
In the zone containing both uranium and copper – referred to as the Main Zone), 101,000 tons of measured and indicated mineral resources with an average grade of 0.86% U3O8 and 5.93% Cu, containing 1,725,000 pounds of uranium and 11,939,000 pounds of copper using a 0.36% U3O8 equivalent cut-off grade have been estimated.
The uranium equivalent cut-off grade used for the Main Zone is different from the other zones, as the presence of copper requires different methods of processing, Energy Fuels explained.
The zones containing only uranium - the Upper Zone and the Juniper Zone - are estimated to contain 38,000 tons of measured and indicated mineral resources with an average grade of 0.94% U3O8 containing 709,000 pounds of U3O8, using a 0.29% U3O8 cut-off grade.
The investment in the underground core drilling campaign pays off
"Today's announced report confirms Energy Fuels' belief that the Canyon Mine is a valuable low-cost uranium and copper project,” said Stephen Antony, chief executive officer of Energy Fuels.
“Our investment in the underground core drilling campaign completed in 2016 and early-2017 was highly successful, as we were able to expand the estimated high-grade uranium resources by approximately one million pounds, upgrade resources to the measured and indicated categories, and identify 12 million pounds of high-grade copper resources, the first ever for our company.
“In addition, the Canyon Mine is differentiated from nearly every other pre-production uranium project in the world today, because all licensing and permitting has been completed, up-front development has been substantially completed, and we own a fully-licensed and operating uranium mill available to process the uranium resources once the mine goes into production,” Antony added.
“We believe we are demonstrating that the Canyon Mine is production-ready and competitive with any conventional uranium mine globally," Antony concluded.
The shares rose 2.9% to C$2.125 on the news.