Microsoft Word - 151030 A-Cap Sep-15 Quarterly Report & App 5B V5
ASX RELEASE
Friday 30th October, 2015
QUARTERLY REPORT AND APPENDIX 5B FOR THE QUARTER ENDED 30TH SEPTEMBER 2015
A-Cap Resources Limited ('A-Cap' or 'the Company') (ASX: ACB) is pleased to provide its Quarterly Activities Report for the quarter ended 30th September 2015.
HIGHLIGHTS
The Letlhakane Mining Licence Application was submitted to the Botswana Department of Mines on the 18th August 2015; Positive economics from the technical study based on forecast uranium average contract price;
Initial construction CAPEX of US$351 million and initial working capital of US$40 million; Targeting up to 3.75 million lb U3O8 p.a. over first 5 years;
Pre-Tax NPV of US$383 million at a discount rate of 8% and IRR of 29%;
Operating costs of US$35/lb U3O8 over first 5 years and approximately $40/lb U3O8 over 18 year process life.
Uranium resource upgrade completed utilising Localised Uniform Conditioning incorporating excellent results from the 2014 drilling programme;
Better grade definition at the mining scale based on using surface miners and grade control methodology; A large increase in lbs of uranium at a 300ppm cut-off;
Submission of 2015 Financial Statements, confirmation of short-term funding plan.
QUARTERLY ACTIVITIES
A-Cap reached an important milestone during the quarter ended 30th September 2015, with the Letlhakane Uranium Project's Mining Licence Application (MLA) submitted to the Botswana Department of Mines on the 18th August 2015. The feasibility work required to prepare a technical study for the MLA highlighted positive economics for the project based on a forecast uranium average contract price. A new Letlhakane uranium resource upgrade was completed, resulting in an uplift in the Project's grade, pounds and continuity, rounding off a successful period for the Company.
A-Cap's 2015 Financial Statements were finalised and released to the market at the end of September 2015, which also set out the Company's funding plan to meet its short-term working capital requirements.
LETLHAKANE URANIUM PROJECT
The Letlhakane Uranium Project is one of the world's largest undeveloped Uranium Deposits. The Project lies adjacent to Botswana's main North-South infrastructure corridor that includes a sealed all-weather highway, railway line and the national power grid, all of which make significant contributions to keeping the capital cost of future developments low.
The project has the distinct advantage of having all the major infrastructure in place and is one of the few major undeveloped uranium projects in the world capable of being in production in 3 years at a low capital cost and competitive operating costs in a safe and stable jurisdiction. The strategy is to prepare the project for early development to enable the company to fully capitalise on an expected recovery in the uranium price.
Figure 1: Location of A-Caps major projects.
Mining Licence Application, Technical Study
In August 2015 A-Cap submitted the Mining Licence application for PL 45/2004 (Letlhakane) to the Botswana Department of Mines. The application was based on the results of a technical study and financial modelling. The technical study was based on shallow open pit mining and heap leach processing to produce up to 3.75 million pounds of uranium per annum over a mine life of 18 years, incorporating the most up to date metallurgical results and process route, optimised mineral resources, mining, capital and operating costs developed by our feasibility specialists in Australia and internationally.
The technical study confirms that the Project has the right mix of a good resource, low capital and operating costs and is well positioned to be taken into early production, reaping the benefits of projected shortfalls in supply in the uranium market and forecast rising uranium prices.
The outcomes of the technical study were released to the market (refer ASX release 11th September 2015) which highlighted the following:
Positive economics based on forecast uranium average contract price Initial construction CAPEX of US$351 million
Initial working capital of US$40 million
Pre-tax NPV of US$383 million at a discount rate of 8% and IRR of 29%
Operating costs of US$35/lb U3O8 over first 5 years, approximately $40/lb U3O8 over 18 year process life.
The technical study and financial modelling was completed with the assistance and in collaboration with a world-class team of consultants including Optiro, Cube Consulting, SLR Consulting (South Africa), Kappes Cassiday & Associates, OMC Hydromet and Lycopodium Minerals Pty Ltd. The key parameters for the project are summarised in Table 1.
|
Project Economics Pre-tax Post-tax
|
|
NPV
|
$US
|
$383M
|
$240M
|
|
IRR
|
%
|
29%
|
24%
|
|
Pay-back period from start of production
|
yrs
|
3
|
3
|
|
|
|
Capital Costs
|
|
Construction
|
$US
|
351M
|
|
|
|
Working Capital
|
$US
|
40M
|
|
|
|
Inputs & Assumptions
|
|
Price of Uranium (flat price over LOM)
|
U3O8 US $/lb
|
$81
|
|
Discount rate
|
8%
|
|
Life of mine (LOM)
|
yrs
|
18
|
|
|
|
Project Summary
|
|
Average Mining cost
|
$US /lb
|
$18
|
|
Average Processing Cost
|
$US /lb
|
$23
|
|
$US /lb
|
$41
|
|
|
|
Cash Flows
|
|
Total Revenue
|
$US
|
$3,499M
|
|
Project Cash flow
|
$US
|
$841M
|
$539M
|
Table 1: Summary of outcomes of the technical study
The Technical Study results and production targets reflected in this announcement are preliminary in nature as conclusions are drawn partly from indicated mineral resources and partly from inferred mineral resources. The Technical Study is based on lower level technical and economic assessments and is insufficient to support estimation of ore reserves or to provide assurance of an economic development case at this stage, or to provide certainty that the conclusions of the Technical Study will be realised. There is a low level of geological confidence associated with inferred mineral resources and there is no certainty that further exploration work will result in the determination of indicated mineral resources or that the production target itself will be realised.
Resources
A-Cap announced a new JORC Mineral Resource Upgrade at Letlhakane completed by Optiro Pty Ltd, an independent expert. The updated resource uses a recoverable resource methodology which takes into account the proposed Standard Mining Unit (SMU). The SMU is defined by the proposed mining method utilising surface miners and the proposed grade control system using in-pit surface gamma radiation measurements.
The Localised Uniform Conditioning (LUC) estimate best reflects the mining methodology envisaged, taking into account the surface miners selective mining capability combined with the proposed grade control methodology. The accurate mining characteristics of surface miners and the ability to measure the gamma radiation on the surface during mining will ensure the optimum grade delivery to the process heap. The SMU of 20m x 4m x 0.25m forms the basis for the LUC estimation. Historic resource estimations were more reflective of conventional open pit mining and therefore had averaged resource data into blocks of bigger mining panels which smoothed or averaged the grade data.
Uniform conditioning (UC) and LUC is used for assessing recoverable resources inside a mining panel when the drill spacing does not provide sufficient coverage for direct grade estimation at the SMU scale. UC provides the proportion of SMUs inside a panel that are above cut-off and its corresponding average grade. LUC takes the UC result and spatially corrects the blocks making it more suited to extraction and optimisation studies.
The new global resource estimate is as follows:
|
Cut-off (U3O8 ppm)
|
Total Indicated
|
Total Inferred
|
Global Total
|
|
Mt
|
U3O8
(ppm)
|
Contained
U3O8
|
Mt
|
U3O8
(ppm)
|
Contained
U3O8
|
Mt
|
U3O8
(ppm)
|
Contained
U3O8
|
|
100
|
197.1
|
197
|
85.5
|
625
|
203
|
280.1
|
822.1
|
202
|
365.7
|
|
200
|
59.2
|
323
|
42.2
|
209.7
|
321
|
148.2
|
268.9
|
321
|
190.4
|
|
300
|
22.2
|
463
|
22.7
|
81.6
|
446
|
80.3
|
103.8
|
450
|
102.9
|
Table 2 - 2015 Mineral resource estimates for ALL DEPOSITS at various U3O8 cut-offs
The 2014 drilling programmes targeted the early optimised shells which typically represents the earliest production potential. Previous results as reported to the ASX during 2014 (August 27th and December 15th) highlighted some of the better grade intersections which would come early on in the potential production sequence. The results of the drilling programme increased confidence in these early production areas within Letlhakane, namely Kraken, Gorgon South and Serule West. The global resource area is 14km long and 11km wide and is divided into the aforementioned main prospect areas. The Letlhakane Uranium Project is divided into prospect areas as defined in the table below:
At a 200 ppm U3O8 cut-off the resource by prospect is:
Table 3 - 2015 LUC resource estimate at 200ppm cut-off.
Recent work completed by Perth-based resource specialists Optiro on a drill spacing study comparison at the Kraken deposit confirmed that at a starting drill spacing of 200m by 200m, the change of contained metal is within +/-10% when drilled down to 100m by 50m drill spacing. The current criteria for inferred resources is nominally greater than 100m by 100m drill spacing. A-Cap has confidence that the deposit will retain its mineralisation continuity when it is further drilled out.