Turkish uranium project moves to permitting

Tuesday, 24 March 2015

Anatolia Energy is eyeing a 2016 start up for its Temrezli uranium project after submitting an application for an environmental impact assessment (EIA) with Turkey's Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning (MEUP).

Exploration work at Temrezli (Image: Anatolia Energy)

The EIA has been prepared by SRK Turkey and submitted by Anatolia's wholly owned Turkish operating subsidiary, Adur Madencilik (Adur), and is the next step in the permitting process for proposed in situ leach (ISL) project. It covers the construction of a central processing plant with an annual production capacity of 1.2 million pounds U3O8 (462 tU) to process uranium-bearing solutions from the Temrezli wellfield. The plant will also be able to process uranium-loaded resin transported from any satellite uranium deposits developed in the future from Adur’s other projects in the region.

Temrezli, about 200 km east of the Turkish capital Ankara, has a current resource estimate of 13.3 million pounds U3O8 (5116 tU). The EIA envisages the recovery of 9.9 million pounds U3O8 (3808 tU) over a mine life of 12 years, in line with a pre-feasibility study released in February.

The submission of the application triggers a process leading to the formal submission of the draft EIA report, followed by a series of review meetings and a public comment period before the issue of a final EIA permit. Anatolia says it expects the process to be completed by the end of 2015.

While the permitting and project approval process is ongoing, Adur plans to begin some pre-development activities to ensure full-scale development can commence swiftly.

Anatolia managing director Paul Cronin described submission of the initial EIA as a significant milestone for the company, and said the project remained on track for first production in 2016. At the same time as moving Temrezli forward to development, Anatolia is also maintaining regional exploration efforts and intends to define a resource for the nearby Sefaatli project early in the third quarter of 2015.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News