enCore Energy Corp said a decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Circuit of the District of Columbia has affirmed its license to extract uranium at the Dewey Burdock project in South Dakota.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe had challenged the decision by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to grant the license to Powertech Uranium (USA) Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of enCore, the Vancouver-based uranium developer noted.
A panel at the Appeals Court had ruled that the NRC’s actions were lawful, it said.
READ: enCore Energy uncovers three 'distinct' uranium zones with high-grade mineralization at Rosita Project in South Texas
enCore’s 100% owned Dewey Burdock project is an In-Situ Recovery (ISR) uranium project located in the Edgemont uranium district of South Dakota, and is comprised of 12,613 surface acres and 16,962 net mineral acres.
The company filed an amended and restated NI 43-101 compliant independent Technical Report and Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Dewey Burdock Project IS in December 2020, which showed initial capital expenditures estimated at $31.7 million.
The Dewey Burdock Project is forecast to produce 14.3 million pounds of U3O8 over its 16 years of production. The PEA estimates uranium prices at $55/lb U3O8. Projected cash flows of the project are expected to be positive in the second year of production, two years after the commencement of construction, enCore said.
With approximately 90 million pounds of U3O8 estimated in the measured and indicated categories and 9 million pounds of U3O8 estimated in the inferred category, enCore is the most diversified in-situ recovery uranium development company in the United States.
The company is focused on becoming the next uranium producer from its licensed and past-producing South Texas Rosita Processing Plant by 2023. The Dewey Burdock project and the Wyoming Gas Hills project offer mid-term production opportunities, with significant New Mexico uranium resource endowment providing long-term opportunities.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com