While the timing of the work is all “proceeding to plan”, the yellowcake producer said key metrics were exceeding feasibility studies, particularly regarding leaching efficiency.
Tenors from the wellfields at Honeymoon — which in this case refers to the concentration of uranium in the liquid — going into the pregnant leach solution as part of the processing system are averaging 80-100 milligrams per litre.
Boss said its feasibility study assumed a PLS grade of 47mg/L, meaning actual observed leach performance is twice as efficient as expected.
And with the uranium extraction process better than planned at commercial throughput rates, Boss said it could use lower amounts of ion exchange resin — the material that captures the uranium — and less power per uranium drum produced.
Effectively, less reagents and lower power translates to lower operating costs.
This is complemented by the actual loading of uranium from the PLS onto the ion exchange resin, which is 33% higher than feasibility estimates at 36g/L compared to the planned 27g/L.
For the layman, it means the processing system is producing more uranium per cycle than planned.
With the ion exchange resin processing cycle costs fixed, this further improves the efficiency of Boss’ chemical usage.
Finally, the company said the stripping of uranium from the loaded resin was “virtually 100%”, meaning the ion exchange process is working as designed.
Boss’ feasibility work for Honeymoon forecasted production of nearly 22 million pounds of uranium over an 11-year mine life at operating costs of US$31.86/lb.
The project had a net present value of around $309 million and an internal rate of return of 47.1%, with an $80 million development price tag and 3.5-year payback period.
Boss has just 1.8Mlb contracted for sale from 2024 to 2032, meaning it remains “highly leveraged to rising uranium prices” as yellowcake production ramps up.
It had A$100 million in cash and equivalents at the end of March and 1.25Mbl of uranium inventory worth around $170 million.
