Boss Energy prepares for first offtake delivery from Honeymoon uranium project

Boss Energy (ASX: BOE) is preparing to deliver its first offtake from the restarted Honeymoon uranium mine in South Australia to European nuclear utilities under existing sales contracts, with revenue to be received in the current quarter.

The ramp-up of the project is reported to be running ahead of the feasibility study schedule, with more than 57,000 pounds of uranium oxide produced to date.

With the NIMCIX (ion exchange circuit) column 1 performing to expectations and construction of a further two columns scheduled for completion by year-end, the company expects production to reach at least 850,000lb by June 2025.

Proceeding to plan

Managing director Duncan Craib said the start-up phase at Honeymoon was proceeding “comfortably to plan.”

“All key metrics are running in line with or exceeding feasibility forecasts, ensuring we are on track to continue increasing our production rates,” he said.

“Total production in the 2026 financial year is expected to be around 1.63Mlb, and the addition of another three columns will further increase this volume to the nameplate capacity of 2.45Mlb per year.”

Well-field performance

Mr Craib said well-field performance at the restart of operations remained strong, with tenors from individual fields into the pregnant leach solution (PLS) process ponds averaging up to 100 milligrams per litre.

The feasibility study assumed a PLS grade of 47mg/L based on results from the project’s previous operation.

Boss is managing the grade of uranium being leached to maximise well-field recoveries.

Reagent consumption

Consumption of sulphuric acid and ferric reagents in the well-fields is also progressing to expectations.

“The lixiviant chemistry continues to demonstrate superior performance at commercial throughput rates,” Mr Craib said.

“The increased leach efficiency leads to a more efficient loading on the ion exchange resin, effectively lowering operating costs as fewer reagents and power are required per drum of uranium.”

Stripping of uranium from the loaded resin continues to be close to 100%, demonstrating that the ion exchange process is working as designed and resulting in a high-grade concentrated eluate greater than 9g/L.