The company produced its first drum of uranium at the project in April and achieved a total production of 57,364lb concentrate for the June quarter.
Construction of two additional continuous ion exchange production columns is progressing to schedule and is on target for commissioning before year-end.
Successful quarter
Managing Director Duncan Craib said the three months to end June had been successful for the company.
“Putting cake in the can with our first production at Honeymoon was a significant milestone for us and we were able to prove that our lixiviant chemistry and ion exchange technology works at commercial scale,” he said.
“The production ramp-up at Honeymoon is progressing in line with our feasibility forecasts and we are on track to produce at least 850,000 pounds of uranium oxide in the 2025 financial year.”
Since acquiring Honeymoon in December 2015, Boss has invested significant time and capital in making technical improvements to the project.
Geologist appointment
During the quarter, Dr Andy Wilde joined Boss Energy in the role of chief geologist after seven years with Paladin Energy (ASX: PDN), where he was responsible for leading the technical aspects of uranium projects in Namibia, Malawi, Canada and Australia.
More recently, he played a critical role in the discovery of the Barking Gecko and Iguana uranium deposits in Namibia owned by Deep Yellow (ASX: DYL) and provided technical advice for the public listing of 92 Energy (which has since been bought out by Canadian company Atha).
Dr Wilde has run a mining consultancy for the past few years, advising companies on uranium and rare earths exploration.
Gould’s Dam drilling
Boss announced high-grade drill results from the Gould’s Dam satellite deposit in June that will support an increase in the nameplate production rate and mine life at Honeymoon.
Work has commenced on accelerating the development of Gould’s Dam and the data will be used in well-field planning and other advanced pre-construction activity.
It will also be fed into detailed geological and mineralisation models to support the preparation of an in-situ recovery mining lease proposal for the deposit.
Gould’s Dam is located 80 kilometres north-west of the Honeymoon mine and contains a current resource estimate of 25Mlb indicated and inferred uranium oxide.
First Quantum farm-in
Boss announced in May that a maiden drilling program by First Quantum Minerals on Honeymoon’s tenements had intersected basement-hosted copper mineralisation below the Yarramba Palaeovalley which holds the uranium.
The results were the first to be received under a Honeymoon farm-in agreement whereby First Quantum has the right to earn a 51% interest in the base metal endowment, allowing Boss to remain focused on the uranium potential.
Alta Mesa start-up
In June, Boss became the only multi-asset uranium producer on the Australian Securities Exchange when it commenced production at the Alta Mesa project in Texas, two months after the start of production at Honeymoon.
Alta Mesa spans 809 sq km and includes a central uranium processing plant and well-fields.
The project, in which Boss owns a 30% interest, is forecast to ramp up to a steady-state rate of 1.5Mlbpa by 2026.
US uranium developer and operator enCore Energy Corp owns the remaining 70%.
Financial breakdown
As at 30 June, Boss had $272.5 million in liquid assets (cash, investments and physical uranium) with no debt.
The company’s uranium inventory was valued at $166.8m, which includes 200,000lb of uranium loaned to enCore and repayable in cash or in kind by year-end.
Boss’ unrestricted cash and equivalents totalled $67.1m (excluding a fully cash-backed environmental bond of $13.5m) and listed investments were valued at $38.6m.
Cash balances are being managed with a term deposit program to take advantage of higher interest rates.
