Deep Yellow completed a successful Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) on the
The deposits, held 100% by Deep Yellow through its wholly owned subsidiary
The PFS utilised only part of the known resources at
A key focus area of the DFS was to increase and upgrade the Tumas Mineral Resources and update the Tumas ORE, upon which the DFS would be based, to ensure a LOM greater than 20 years. Following the successful resource upgrade drilling program as previously announced, this major ORE milestone has been achieved.
SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN INDICATED MINERAL RESOURCES
In
This program completed 1,473 holes, for 24,942m and results (reported to the ASX on 13 July and
In addition, a further 15.3Mlb U3O8 at 215ppm of Inferred Mineral Resources remains within these deposits and may be upgraded at a future date. Overall, at a 100 ppm U3O8 cut off, these deposits now contain total Mineral Resources of 114Mlb U3O8 at 258ppm.
UPDATED ORE RESERVES DELIVER A 20+YEAR DFS LOM
The significant increase in Indicated Mineral Resources announced for both
Using the economic parameters and other modifying factors reported in the PFS, the Ore Reserves available at
This updated ORE represents a 121% increase from the maiden Tumas ORE announced in the PFS.
This substantial increase in Ore Reserves confirms that
Cube completed a number of key workstreams which included collation of input parameters, open pit optimisation studies on the Indicated Mineral Resources of the deposit, open pit designs and pit production scheduling, culminating in the reporting of an Updated Ore Reserve for
The pit production and process feed schedule developed for the ORE ramps up mining to the designed production rates in the first year and continues over 20 years at an average head grade of 398ppm U3O8, allowing average production of approximately 2.8Mlbpa U3O8 for 20 years (compared to an average of 2.56Mlbpa U3O8 in the PFS for 11.5 years). Mining will commence at
In total 64.1Mlb U3O8 will be produced from 89.8Mt of ore, at an average grade of 345 ppm U3O8, containing 68.4Mlb U3O8 over a total LOM of 27.5 years (25.75 production years).
Significant upside remains for optimisation of annual
Commenting on the major DFS milestone Deep Yellow Managing Director Mr
"We are delivering continued value and growth through targeted exploration and development and growth of the Tumas Ore Reserves provide the team with great confidence to proceed with evaluation of a 20+ year LOM operation in the Tumas DFS.
"A major risk milestone for
"Importantly, significant potential remains to grow
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DFS
The significant increase in Ore Reserves for the
- Development criteria for a 20+ year LOM has been established at throughput and production rates assumed for the PFS (a maximum of either 3.75Mt pa throughput or 3.0Mlb pa of U3O8);
- Extended LOM is likely to materially increase the NPV for the Project and may also increase the IRR;
- Mine schedules developed in this update indicate that for the first 20 years of production, 68.7Mt of ore may be processed at a grade of 398 ppm U3O8, resulting in production of 56.5Mlb U3O8 (2.82Mlb U3O8 pa average);
- In the subsequent 5.75 years of operation (in the unlikely event that no further higher grade reserves are identified) 21.1Mt of ore may be processed at a grade of 175ppm U3O8, resulting in production of a further 7.6Mlb U3O8 (1.33Mlb U3O8 pa average);
- In addition to this, at the end of the 25.75 years of production, a further 17.0Mt of low grade ore at an average grade of 131ppm U3O8 will remain stockpiled and may be treated profitably, should economic conditions allow; and
- Exploration of the remaining 40% of prospective
In other DFS work undertaken to date, there have been no material adverse outcomes or issues identified compared to the PFS parameters for
While this very important step of upgrading Ore Reserves has been completed, and consistent with the other "next steps" identified when the DFS commenced, the following activities have been undertaken or commenced:
- Detailed trade-off and optimisation studies recommended in the PFS.
- Metallurgical optimisation test work and analysis.
- Engagement of a suitable engineering service provider,
- Expansion of the Deep Yellow technical team to facilitate and support the DFS.
- EIA completion and submission of a
TUMAS PROJECT UPDATED ORE RESERVE ESTIMATE
Overall Mineral Resource Status
The MRE for the Tumas Deposits (
A cut-off grade of 100ppm U3O8 has been selected as the MRE quoted cut-off grade, based on economic grade parameters, in order to reasonably reflect the expected total mining inventory. The cut-off used for the PFS and current Mining Study Ore Reserves estimate was 150ppm U3O8 with material in the 100 - 150ppm U3O8 grade range expected to be stockpiled as mineralised waste for possible future processing. This 100 - 150ppm U3O8 material is classed as waste for the purposes of stripping ratio determination and cost allocation.
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About
Contact:
Managing Director/CEO
T: +61-8-9286-6999
Email: john.borshoff@deepyellow.com.au
www.deepyellow.com.au
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