Boss Energy produces first drum of uranium at Honeymoon project
Boss Energy (ASX: BOE) has produced the first drum of uranium at its wholly-owned Honeymoon project in South Australia.
The milestone is part of the commissioning process of the project’s re-start, which will see production ramp up to 2.45 million pounds of uranium oxide per year.
Honeymoon is already reported to be exceeding feasibility study forecasts, with uranium-rich lixiviant from the wellfields and recoveries of loaded resin in the ion-exchange column producing concentrated high-grade eluate.
Boss is now expected to accelerate plans to increase the mine’s production rate and life span.
The current mine plan utilises 36Mlb of the project’s total 71.6Mlb resource, half of which is covered by the existing mining licence.
Boss also has a valid uranium mineral export permit for 3.3Mlb a year.
Effective strategy
Managing director Duncan Craib said processing of the first drum of uranium was a major milestone.
“As well as marking the start of production and cashflow, it shows conclusively that our mining and processing strategy is highly-effective,” he said.
“This is pivotal because it paves the way for strong organic production growth by unlocking the value of our large resource and leveraging the infrastructure we have in place.”
“We have also made extensive provision in the Honeymoon plant for increased throughput.”
Shareholder returns
As well as confirming the project’s technical and operational success, Mr Craib said the project had delivered “exceptional” shareholder returns.
The company has no debt and $298 million of liquid assets in cash, equity investments and physical uranium.
This equates to almost 70% of the funds the company has raised since it acquired Honeymoon in December 2015.
Alta Mesa start-up
Boss is also preparing for start-up within the next few weeks at the Alta Mesa uranium project in South Texas.
When that project reaches steady-state operations, Boss’ share of production will be 500,000lb a year.
In February, Boss paid enCore Energy Corp around $92m to acquire a 30% interest in Alta Mesa from enCore Energy as part of plans to add international assets to Honeymoon.
Mr Craib said Alta Mesa had “significant potential” for further resource growth and expanding the drying capacity of its 1.5Mlb central processing plant.