Aura Energy believes it will soon upgrade the resource at its Tiris uranium project after drilling defined new areas of high-grade mineralisation. Pic: Getty Images
Mining
Special Report: Aura Energy is increasingly confident of growing existing resources at its Tiris uranium project in Mauritania after drilling to date defined two new areas of extensive shallow, high-grade mineralisation.
Tiris is a well-established project with a current resource of 113Mt at 236ppm U3O8, for a contained resource of 58.9Mlb U3O8.
A front-end engineering design (FEED) study carried out by Aura Energy (ASX:AEE), which provides a very strong indicator of project requirements and costs, had estimated Capex at a relatively low US$230m with payback in 2.5 years.
All-in sustaining costs are forecast at just US$34.5/lb of U3O8 and Tiris is expected to deliver post-tax net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) – both measures of a project’s profitability – of US$366m and 34% by producing 2Mlbpa U3O8. Tiris’ mine life is currently estimated at 17 years.
The project will be developed via shallow free dig open pit mining before beneficiation delivers a low-cost, high-grade leach feed averaging 1,743ppm U3O8 from an average ore feed grade of just 255ppm U3O8.
While this is more than sufficient for a development decision – expected late in 2024, the company still sought to increase resources to 100Mlb or more by launching a 15,500m extensional drilling program in January this year.
Drill holes at Tiris East. Pic: Aura Energy
Assaying of the drill program completed to date has now confirmed that extensive shallow, high-grade mineralisation is present at the Hippolyte South and Sadi prospects while extending known mineralisation at other resource areas.
Results such as 3.9m at 310ppm U3O8 from 0.9m and 3m at 395ppm U3O8 from 0.9m have defined mineralisation over a strike length of +8km at Hippolyte South.
Drilling has also extended mineralisation at Sadi over 1.2km south from the existing 9km mineralised trend.
At Lazare North and South, drilling returning up to 4.1m at 338ppm U3O8 from 0.3m has defined new mineralisation on the margins of the existing resource areas.
“Drilling results at Tiris continue to demonstrate the significant potential to grow the project’s mineral resources beyond the current 58.9Mlbs U3O8,” managing director Andrew Grove said.
“These results has now defined mineralisation over at least 8km strike at Hippolyte South. Additionally, further drilling has been undertaken at Sadi, with those results pending. Both areas are expected to significantly add to the Mineral Resources at Tiris.
“Drilling has now been completed and final results will be released once received and work to update the mineral resources at Tiris has commenced.
“The shallow, free dig open pit mining and outstanding beneficiation properties at Tiris has demonstrated very robust economics. Additional mineral resources are likely to allow for future expansion opportunities beyond the currently proposed 2Mlbs per annum production rate.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Aura Energy, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
