Uranium explorer Deep Yellow has announced a 121% increase in the ore reserves for its Tumas uranium project in Namibia, marking a major milestone for the project’s ongoing definitive feasibility study (DFS).
The company has delivered a new estimate of 89.8 million tonnes at 345 parts per million uranium oxide (using a 150ppm cut-off grade) for 68.4 million pounds of uranium oxide metal.
The earlier pre-feasibility study only utilised part of the known resources at Tumas and defined a probable ore reserve base of 31Mlb uranium oxide at 344ppm, using a 150ppm cut-off grade. This sized ore reserve was considered sufficient for an 11.8-year life of mine operation.
Indicated resources for the combined Tumas 1 and 1 East deposits now stands at 98.7Mlb uranium oxide at 266ppm, using a 100ppm cut-off.
A key focus of the DFS was to increase and upgrade Tumas mineral resources and ore reserves to ensure a life of mine greater than 20 years.
Following the successful resource upgrade, Deep Yellow managing director John Borshoff said the substantial increase in ore reserves now confirms a longer mine life for Tumas.
“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-plus year life of mine operation in the Tumas DFS.”
Borshoff described the upgrade as a de-risking milestone that demonstrated the great potential to develop the project into a tier one uranium deposit.
“Importantly, significant potential remains to grow Tumas through upgrading remaining inferred resources and further exploration of the Tumas palaeochannel, with approximately 40% yet to be fully tested.”
“This provides Deep Yellow with exceptional, additional optionality for optimisation of the DFS, which is expected to be completed in the latter part of the 2022 calendar year,” he added. -smallacaps
