Aura Energy Limited (ASX:AEE) has successfully completed a resource upgrade for the Tiris Uranium Project in Mauritania.
The results exceeded expectations with an increase in the overall resource to 52 million pounds of triuranium octoxide (U3O8), a compound of uranium.
It is worth noting that 17 million pounds of U3O8 are in the measured and indicated categories with good resource continuity and a contribution from the new Hippolyte South exploration area.
WATCH: Aura Energy sees above expectation resource upgrade at Tiris project
Aura’s Executive Chairman Peter Reeve said: “This resource upgrade has exceeded our expectations in many ways.
“Our objective was to upgrade approximately 7 million pounds of contained U3O8 to the measured and indicated categories, so the achievement of 17 million pounds has exceeded this by a wide margin providing potential for more than 17 years mine life.
“The resource contribution from our new exploration area Hippolyte South was very encouraging as was our resource experts highlighting the orebody continuity, an important aspect for our future development plans.”
Beneficiation upgrades of between 330 to 700%
One of the key technical aspects to the Tiris Uranium Project is the ability to beneficiate the ore to a higher grade before processing in the leach circuit.
Given the uranium mineral is very fine grained carnotite, simple washing and screening has resulted in beneficiation upgrades of between 330 to 700%.