Aura Energy (ASX:AEE) has announced another major milestone - validating economic viability of its giant Häggån uranium deposit in central Sweden with excellent results from a scoping study. These results give the green light to move into pre-feasibility.

Aura’s news is timely after several uranium announcements including China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp declaring its offer for Kalahari Minerals and readying itself for a takeover bid for huge uranium mine owner Extract Resources, while Hanlong Mining Investment made an unsuccessful cash offer to take over Bannerman Resources in October 2011. Canada’s Cameco Corp has also announced plans to double its uranium production to 40 million pounds a year by 2018 to accommodate extra demand from China and India.

Following are some key highlights from Aura’s scoping study:

· 30 million tonnes per year operation with a 25 year initial mine life

· Target initial production of 6.6 Mlbs (2995t) uranium, 14.8 Mlbs nickel and 3.6 Mlbs molybdenum

· Operating costs of US$36/lb uranium and payback in 4.3 years

· Long term, secure supply of uranium very attractive to energy suppliers and consumers

· Uses low risk bioheap leach technology used extensively in the copper industry in Chile

Aura has the largest uranium resources of any ASX-listed uranium company, exceeding even ERA (619Mlbs) and Paladin Energy (503Mlbs); only BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have larger uranium resources.

It is necessary to invest in uranium exploration now, as recently the International Atomic Energy Agency predicted 5.4Mt of uranium will be needed between 2000 and 2050 with a total shortfall of almost 1Mt.

In other uranium news, the United States Department of Energy has announced a new funding initiative for manufacturing small model nuclear reactors. Smaller models can be beneficial in diversifying safety and environmental risks and require less time and cost to build, useful for the future nuclear power generation.
 

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