Mining

Boss Energy to begin drilling at Honeymoon uranium project to expand mine life

Go to Lorna Nicholas author's page
By Lorna Nicholas - 
Boss Energy ASX BOE Honeymoon Enhanced Feasibility Study uranium Ion Exchanges

Boss Energy’s enhanced feasibility study for the Honeymoon uranium mine is due for delivery in the June quarter.

Copied

Advanced uranium explorer Boss Energy (ASX: BOE) is poised to start drilling at its flagship Honeymoon uranium project in South Australia, with the aim of building mining inventory to extend production life and achieve higher rates.

Boss managing director Duncan Craib said the company had a two-pronged approach to the project.

“This involves preparations for the start of production and cash flow, which will make Boss Australia’s next uranium producer, and growing the uranium inventory,” he added.

New targets

The company recently completed the geophysical phase of its accelerated discovery initiative and has identified five new targets across the project.

This program included seismic reflection surveys and has identified a highly prospective anomaly in a narrowing neck of the Billeroo palaeovalley.

A combination of geophysical data, historical chemical assays and favourable regional faults have led to detection of the Eaglehawk Dam prospect.

Historical drilling at Eaglehawk Dam intercepted 2.7m at 1,572 parts per million uranium from 85.8m, 0.5m at 2,065ppm uranium from 73.5m, and 1.45m at 1,083ppm uranium from 88.25m.

Geophysical survey strategy

As well as seismic reflection surveys, passive seismic technology was also used to refine the palaeovalley geometry at the project.

The company used both methods to complement each other and map out likely host sediments within the known mineralised palaeochannels.

This allows better targeting for drilling, which can result in higher production and expanded mine life.

Mr Craib said the exploration strategy has proven “highly successful” for the company so far with resources growing from 16.57 million pounds of uranium to 71.67Mlb since 2015.

“The outstanding results from the seismic reflection surveys prove that our exploration strategy is working well, allowing us to undertake a more targeted drilling campaign.”

Drilling to begin this month

Mr Craib said drilling will begin this month and focus on the “most prospective” areas within the project, which have been identified using the survey data and geological modelling.

“Value for shareholders and smart use of funding has been foremost in our minds as we plan each successive exploration program, bringing us one step closer to further developing the project’s significant exploration upside towards the eventual increase of both production rates and mine life,” he added.

Drilling will also aim to upgrade satellite JORC resources at the Jason’s and Gould’s Dam deposits as well evaluating greenfields targets.