Fuel cycle roundup #14

Tuesday, 10 September 2013

Regulatory approval for Four Mile

Alliance Resources' Four Mile uranium mine in South Australia has received final regulatory approval after plans for mine monitoring, closure and community engagement required under Australian law were passed. The project recently received final environmental approval. According to Alliance, only three key steps remain to be completed before mining operations can commence: modifications to existing licences for the nearby Beverley project to accommodate integration of Four Mile operations; the payment of a bond covering rehabilitation liability; and the submission of key design, construction and commissioning reports to appropriate regulators at progressive stages of mine development.

Consolidation for Patterson Lake South

Fission Uranium is set to acquire Alpha Minerals, enabling it to increase its current 50% interest in the Patterson Lake South joint venture to 100%. The two companies have signed a non-binding letter of intent on the deal, and expect the transaction to be completed in November. According to a joint press release, the two companies expect that unifying the current 50:50 joint venture into a single company will streamline decision making and allow for other efficiencies as they look to the development of the high-grade uranium exploration project in Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin.

Energy Fuels completes on Strathmore

Following the completion of its acquisition of Strathmore Minerals, Energy Fuels president and CEO Stephen Antony has said that the company has the potential to increase its output to up to five times current levels, depending on market conditions. Antony described the acquisition of Strathmore as in "important step" towards the goal of becoming the "dominant uranium producer" in the USA.

Oil project shows uranium potential

URU Metals is hoping that the site of a former oil recovery plant in Sweden could become a major uranium project. The Canadian company purchased rights to the Närke project in central Sweden earlier this year. Now it has released a Competent Persons Report suggesting the alum shales at Närke could potentially host over 300,000 tonnes U3O8 (257,000 tU). Uranium has been extracted from the property in the past: a 1960s pilot project run by the Swedish government extracted about 52 tU. URU says it will now focus on verifying historic data and starting a preliminary metallurgical testing program.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News