OVERVIEW
29 January 2016
ASX ACTIVITIES REPORT
3 months ended:
31 December 2015
UraniumSA Limited ("UraniumSA")
ASX Code: USA
ABN 48 119 978 013
Ground Floor
-
Greenhill Road
Wayville SA 5034
Phone +61 8 8132 0577
Fax +61 8 8132 0766
www.uraniumsa.com.au [email protected]
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Alice McCleary Chairman Martin Janes Director Russel Bluck Director & Geoscience Manager
David Paterson Director & Acting CEO
PROJECTS
South Australia
Samphire ELs 4979, 5426 JV
Blackbush MC 4280
Murninnie EL 5440
Wild Horse Plains EL 4693 JV Muckanippie EL 4694
ISSUED CAPITAL
-
January 2016
Shares on Issue: 187,271,038 Quoted shares: 187,271,038
Unlisted Options: 14,650,000
INVESTOR INQUIRIES
[email protected]
Inquiries regarding this report and company business may be directed to:
David Paterson - Acting CEO
+61 8 8132 0577
+61 417 823 654
VISIT OUR WEBSITE
www.uraniumsa.com.au
SAMPHIRE PROJECT & EXPLORATION
The Samphire Project and the Blackbush deposit uranium mineralisation continued as a focus for the quarter. Conceptualisation of open cut production scenarios continued in conjunction with investigations of the potential for mechanical beneficiation of mineralisation to provide higher grade feed stock for processing. Outcomes from both remain encouraging.
Six South Australian exploration licence applications lodged in June 2015 were offered by the regulator.
CORPORATE
New Projects - projects involving minerals and energy other than uranium are being sought and evaluated as part of a diversification strategy.
Uranium industry - The uranium spot price remained steady & above US$35.00 per pound. Uranium was a standout 'performer' compared to a basket of other metal and commodity prices in the calendar year just ended. It has held its price, after testing lows of US$28 per pound in July 2014.
The fundamentals supporting a firmer uranium price remain intact.
In Japan, the two nuclear plants restarted have operated to plan. An additional 3 Japanese reactors (Takahama 3 and 4 and Ikata 3) were approved for restart and are on schedule for coming weeks. China had
30 reactors in operation at the end of 2015 with another 24 units currently under construction, and another 15 additional reactors likely to commence construction in 2016.
The December 2015 Climate Change Treaty agreed in Paris will see further moves away from fossil fuel as a source of power generation in coming years. Nuclear will be one of the winners from the anticipated change in the mix of global energy sources.
FINANCE
A research and development refund of $78,000 was received in November 2015.
Exploration expenditure for the period $57,000. Cash position at the end of the period $129,000 (debt $200,000 convertible loan agreement, with $100,000 undrawn on the facility - refer ASX 21 December 2015, unaudited).
Estimated expenditure for the March 2016 quarter is $150,000.
1
ACTIVITIES
SAMPHIRE PROJECT, Blackbush deposit
Work on the conceptualisation of possible open cut operations continued as outlined below. Investigation of the possibilities for a mechanical beneficiation of Blackbush mineralisation continued.
Conceptualisation of Open Cut Scenarios
In-house work on the conceptualisation of the potential for Blackbush mineralisation to be extracted by open pit is ongoing (ASX 24th October 2013, and in Quarterly Reports and other releases since). The work has recently benefited from public domain information about open pit excavations in a geologically similar terrain (HAV: ASX 23 December 2015) and a pre-feasibility study of a geologically similar deposit (VMY: ASX 17 November 2015).
The geological conceptualisations of voids given here are based on existing and previously reported geological solid models and grade shells, with generic assumptions regarding batter angles and slope stability. They have been generated as part of an ongoing consideration of alternative future development scenarios. It is uncertain if future work will result in a decision to mine. There has been no material change in the available drilling or grade data and the existing Inferred Mineral Resource estimate remains valid.
Notes on methodology and assumptions used for the conceptualisation are provided as Appendix 1. The conceptualisations are geological models derived from existing and previously reported information on the Blackbush deposit and constructed without deposit-specific geotechnical or mining inputs. They are not estimations which are within JORC classifications and JORC 2012 Checklist Tables are not attached.
MODEL 1 (LEAPFROG SNAPSHOT - REFER APPENDIX 1)
This is a conceptualisation of a void to excavate the majority of mineralisation in the Blackbush deposit. The view is looking into a final void from the south-east at an inclination of ~300. The void is ~2km west-to-east and up to ~75m deep.
Conceptual Void - MODEL 1
|
Void Estimate
|
Void Range ( + / - 10%)
|
Void nominal mineralisation (Mt)
|
52.5
|
47 - 54
|
Void nominal grade
(ppm U3O8 at 100 ppm cutoff)
|
345
|
310 - 346
|
Void nominal waste (Mt)
|
446.0
|
401 - 447
|
Void waste/mineralisation
|
8.5
|
MODEL 2 (LEAPFROG SNAPSHOT - REFER APPENDIX 1)
This is a conceptualisation of a "high grade starter" void to excavate an area in Western Zone at Blackbush which is characterised by thicker intercepts and higher grades than the deposit averages. Below is a west-to-east cross-sectional slice through a conceptual void which would occupy much the same area as that of the lower part of the left-hand side of Model 1. The view to the north and at an inclination of ~150, the opening is ~1,100m west-to-east at it's widest, ~75m deep.
Conceptual Void - MODEL 2
|
Void Estimate
|
Void Range ( + / - 10%)
|
Void nominal mineralisation (Mt)
|
14.9
|
13 - 16
|
Void nominal grade
(ppm U3O8 at 100 ppm cutoff)
|
495
|
446 - 496
|
Void nominal waste (Mt)
|
112.0
|
101 - 123
|
Void waste/mineralisation
|
7.5
|
CONTEXT AND CONCLUSION
Context. A Pre-Feasibility Study was recently released for open pit mining of the Mulga Rocks project (ASX: VMY 17 November 2015). These West Australian deposits are geologically similar to the Samphire project and provide a realistic benchmark for comparison. The basic parameters for the Princess/Ambassador deposits which would be the first to be mined are;
Ore (Mt)
|
31.7
|
Grade
(ppm U3O8 at 150 ppm cutoff)
|
432
|
|
Waste (Mt)
|
538
|
Waste / Ore
|
13.6
|
Conclusion. The outcomes obtained from the conceptual modelling of Blackbush are encouraging and considered sufficient to support a continuation of investigations of open pit as a potential mining method.
The Inferred Resource estimate for the Blackbush deposits at a 100ppm cut-off is 64.5Mt at 230ppm U3O8 (ASX 27 September 2013). That estimation gives tonnes and grade information across cut-offs ranging from 100 to 2,000ppm. At the time of estimation the mineralisation was considered as potentially extractable but there was no metallurgical, mining or economic data for the deposit to support choosing either in-situ recovery (ISR) or conventional or un- conventional mining methods. There has been no drilling or assaying or other work completed and a re-estimation of the resource is not required at this time.
Metallurgy
Scouter tests on sub-samples of mineralised core materials were commenced. These materials were originally collected for column leach test work and there is some existing data on grade and mineralisation. The samples being tested comprise a sand dominated unconsolidated material of the style which comprises the majority of the Blackbush deposit.
A first-pass test using a light mechanical agitation of raw mineralised material effectively removed a light sulphide(?) patina from the grains and increased the uranium content of a µm fraction by
~30%. After the light agitation the cleaned sand grains still reported significant mineralisation - the next round of testing will use a much more aggressive agitation to break up these sand grains to determine if this mineralisation is also released to the µm fraction. This scouter work is using small sample masses and HH-XRF assay to generate indicative data.
The objective of the ongoing scouter work is to determine if a low cost bulk processing of a large volume of moderate grade material can produce a significantly smaller volume at a much higher grade for processing to recover uranium. The complete program of scouter test work will indicate if this is potentially possible and if work on larger and more representative materials is warranted.