Photo by: Deep Yellow
Name of the Project
Tumas uranium project.
Location
The Tumas palaeochannel system is located within Deep Yellow’s 100%-owned Reptile project, in Namibia.
Project Owner/s
Deep Yellow.
Project Description
A definitive feasibility study (DFS) has proven positive.
The objective of the project is to develop a facility to treat ore from the Tumas 1, Tumas 2, Tumas 3, Tumas 1 East and Tubas ore resources.
The study envisages an operation treating 4.15-million tonnes a year to produce up to 3.6-million pounds of uranium and 1.15-million pounds of vanadium by-product a year over a projected mine life of 22.25 years, based on existing ore reserves.
Additional resources will likely increase the life-of-mine (LoM) to more than 30 years.
The mine will be a conventional, shallow open-cut truck-and-shovel operation using contract mining.
The process route comprises a beneficiation process to reject barren material, leaching, solid liquid separation, pregnant leach solution concentration, vanadium recovery, uranium recovery and uranium barren liquor treatment.
The project also includes the construction of a 13.5 km site access road, a 45.1 km 132 kV powerline and a 65 km water supply pipeline.
Potential Job Creation
Not stated.
Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Using a uranium price of $65/lb, a vanadium price of $8.90/lb and a discount rate of 8%, the financial analysis for the project indicates an after-tax project net present value of $341-million and an internal rate of return of 19.2%.
Payback is estimated at 4.1 years from the start of production.
Capital Expenditure
Initial capital expenditure is estimated at A$372-million.
Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.
Latest Developments
Deep Yellow is making strides towards extending the mine life of its Tumas project to a targeted 30 years, with a recent drill programme unearthing additional resources to prolong the current LoM.
The primary objective of the reverse circulation resource expansion and infill drilling programme, completed to the west of the Tumas 3 deposit, was to identify additional resources to extend the current 22.5-year LoM.
Based on this work, the drill programme has successfully increased the Tumas 3 mineral resource, delivering an 11% uplift in indicated mineral resources, to 60.6-million pounds at 325 parts per million (ppm) uranium oxide-equivalent using a 100 ppm cutoff grade.
The drill programme also identified a further 1.2-million pounds of inferred mineral resources in the same area.
Tumas 3 is the biggest uranium deposit along the Tumas palaeodrainage. Together with the Tumas 1, 1 East, Tumas 2 and Tubas deposits, the palaeodrainage contains about 139-million pounds of inferred and indicated uranium resources, of which 67.3-million pounds are currently contained in a probable ore reserve.
Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Ausenco Services (DFS).
Contact Details for Project Information
Deep Yellow, tel +61 8 9286 6999 or email info@deepyellow.com.au.