Boss on Wednesday launched a $125m equity raising to fund development of the Honeymoon project in South Australia’s north-east, a decade after it was mothballed due to high costs of production.
An $US80m ($A111m) investment in infrastructure and mine development is expected to commence after final engineering designs are completed later this month, with the first production to follow 12-18 months later.
Boss took over full control of the operation in 2018, and has since been working on ways to lower operating costs.
Facing a global shortage and a surge in uranium prices in the wake of the Ukraine conflict, Mr Craib said Honeymoon was “perfectly placed” to become the country’s third operating uranium mine.
“The fundamentals are that demand heavily outweighs supply, inventory levels are dropping around the world and the price is going up,” he said.
“And then more recently, you’ve got the unfortunate circumstance with Russia and Ukraine, and that’s really knocked the fuel buyer confidence, particularly in US and European utilities. “They’re spooked by it and I don’t believe there’s any walking back in their confidence. There’s a growing need by them now to find new sources of material and that’s where Australia, as a geopolitically stable country, lends itself.
“We feel that while there will always be volatility in the spot price, we certainly believe the trend is upward.”
