Energy Fuels Inc. (TSE:EFR, NYSEMT:UUUU) has teased its shareholders with some early results from its vanadium mining program at the La Sal complex in Utah.
The company has mined 420 tons of material to date and provided the following sample results:
Area
Stope
Sample Date
Tons
Mineralized
Material
% V2O5
%U3O8
V2O5:U3O8
Ratio
Lbs. V2O5
Lbs. U3O8
2300
2380
10/9/2018
63
1.540%
0.074%
20.8
1,940
93
2300
2380
10/9/2018
63
1.872%
0.141%
13.3
2,359
178
2300
2380
10/9/2018
35
1.461%
0.119%
12.3
1,023
83
2300
2380
10/10/2018
28
1.993%
0.109%
18.3
1,116
61
2300
2380
10/10/2018
28
1.854%
0.172%
10.8
1,038
96
2300
2380
10/11/2018
14
3.104%
0.171%
18.2
869
48
2300
2380
10/11/2018
14
1.491%
0.075%
19.9
417
21
720
721
10/9/2018
35
1.247%
0.082%
15.2
873
57
720
721
10/9/2018
21
1.948%
0.032%
60.9
818
13
720
721
10/9/2018
7
1.271%
0.204%
6.2
178
29
2300
2310
10/12/2018
28
1.366%
0.141%
9.7
765
79
2300
2310
10/12/2018
28
1.673%
0.124%
13.5
937
69
721
721
10/17/2018
28
1.759%
0.028%
62.8
985
16
730
732
10/17/2018
28
1.347%
0.026%
51.8
754
15
420
1.671%
0.102%
16.4
14,072
858
READ: Energy Fuels set to be newest vanadium producer in world when it resumes output in November
Historically, when uranium was targeted for production at the La Sal complex of uranium/vanadium mines, the recovered vanadium-to-uranium ratio was roughly 5-to-1. By targeting vanadium, the samples in the above table show a ratio of over 16-to-1 vanadium-to-uranium, including an average vanadium grade of 1.675% and an average uranium grade of 0.102% U3O8 (triuranium octoxide).
Energy Fuels extrapolated from these results that, assuming average historic recoveries at the company's White Mesa uranium/vanadium mill of roughly 95% uranium and 70% vanadium, the company would expect to recover roughly 23.5 pounds of V2O5 (vanadium pentoxide), and 1.9 pounds of U3O8, per ton of the mineralized material that has been mined to date under this program.
“While not intended to represent a resource or reserve estimate or economic evaluation, this test mining program is demonstrating two key points to the company,” Energy Fuels said.
“First, high-grade vanadium associated with lower grade uranium exists in the La Sal mine complex. This mineralized material was either not detected in the past or not mined due to its relatively lower uranium grade.
“Second, the company now has the technology to identify this mineralization, which was not available historically. This material is attractive at current vanadium prices, and would have been attractive during previous mining campaigns had the vanadium grades been identified at those times,” it added.
These two points confirm the company's belief that further study is required to determine the extent of this additional mineralized material at the La Sal complex and other uranium/vanadium mines owned or controlled by Energy Fuels, and the impacts such additional mineralized material may have on the mining costs per pound of V2O5 and U3O8 recovered from these mines.
The company plans to continue the test-mining program and recover, sample, and evaluate a minimum of 5,000 tons of mineralized material. The company also plans to conduct additional surface exploration drilling that targets high-grade vanadium mineralization at the La Sal Complex.
"Today, Energy Fuels is pursuing a number of exciting vanadium-related opportunities. In addition to resuming production from existing pond solutions at the White Mesa Mill in a few weeks, we are looking to build a longer-term vanadium production profile at our uranium/vanadium mines,” declared Mark Calmers, the president and chief executive officer of Energy Fuels.
“While we're still in the early stages of this vanadium test-mining program, we wanted to show the market some of the positive results we're already seeing thus far. As we suspected, there may be large zones of high-grade vanadium mineralization in the La Sal Complex that were never mined in the past, because they contain relatively lower-grade uranium mineralization. If we continue to see similar results as the program advances, it is our hope that we can mine the La Sal Complex in a manner that targets vanadium during periods of elevated vanadium prices, even during periods of lower uranium prices,” he added.