Some 96 holes drilled across the project for nearly 13,000m have returned headline results such as 4m at 2925 parts per million uranium from 123m, 4.25m at 2230ppm from 121m, and 3.25m at 1406ppm from 124m.
The results come from the Sunrise, Billeroo and Beulah targets within the Gould’s Dam area, and Boss said they’ve prompted the company to accelerate development planning.
If all goes to plan, Gould’s Dam could lift Honeymoon’s production from its current nameplate capacity of 2.45 million pounds of yellowcake a year to the export permit limit of 3.3Mlbpa.
Gould’s Dam hosts inferred resources of 17.7 million tonnes at 480ppm uranium for 18.7Mlb of contained metal and indicated resources of 4.4Mt at 650ppm uranium for 6.3Mlb.
Boss’ drilling work at Sunrise and Billeroo primarily came from testing inferred sections of the resources, while the Beulah target drilling came from an area with only ‘limited’ and ‘sporadic’ historical drilling.
Another 40 holes are planned to better define the mineralisation and geological characteristics of Beulah.
Boss produced its first drum of yellowcake from Honeymoon in April. It’s not clear if a second barrel has been produced since.
Feasibility work for the mine forecasts production of nearly 22Mlb of uranium over an 11-year mine life at operating costs of US$31.86/lb.
As it stands, Honeymoon has a net present value of A$309 million and an internal rate of return of 47.1%, but the numbers could improve if Gould’s Dam is added to the mix.
It’s particularly pertinent that Boss has around 1.8Mlb of uranium contracted for sale from 2024-2032, meaning it remains leveraged to current strong uranium prices, which have sat at levels around $85/lb in recent weeks.
Alongside the boosted capacity, Gould’s Dam could extend the mine life of the SA asset.
Boss had A$100 million in cash and equivalents at the end of March and 1.25Mlb of uranium inventory worth around $170 million.
It started production this month at its 30%-owned Alta Mesa in-situ recovery uranium project in Texas, USA, with production to ramp-up to 1.5Mlbpa.
Shares in the company were off 2.26% on Wednesday morning, capitalising it at $1.59 billion. The stock has traded between $2.83-6.12 over the past 12 months.
