Nichols Ranch ships first uranium

Wednesday, 3 September 2014

Uranerz Energy has announced the first delivery of uranium oxide (U3O8) from its Nichols Ranch in-situ leach mine in Wyoming, which began operating in April.

Nichols Ranch (Image: Uranerz)

The company said the shipment of some 36,000 pounds of U3O8 (14 tU) had been received at Converdyn's Metropolis uranium conversion plant in Illinois. Following conversion, the uranium will be transferred to one of Uranerz's utility customers.

Uranerz signed its first long-term uranium sales agreement in 2009 with Exelon. Later the same year, it signed a second sales agreement with another undisclosed US utility.

"This shipment takes the company one step closer to completing its first recorded sales transaction."

Glenn Catchpole
Uranerz CEO

"This delivery will satisfy a portion of Uranerz's existing long-term contracts and the company expects to make its next shipment of uranium later this quarter," Uranerz said.

The Nichols Ranch project is licensed for a production level of up to 770 tonnes of uranium per year, with initial annual production targeted for 230 tU to 310 tU after ramp-up. Commissioning of Nichols Ranch began in April with the start of chemical addition to the circulating groundwater.

Uranium-loaded resin from Nichols Ranch is shipped to Cameco Resources' processing facilities at Smith Ranch for final processing into dried and drummed uranium concentrates under a toll processing agreement.

Uranerz has previously said that Nichols Ranch will "serve as a platform to develop the company's other Powder River Basin properties with enhanced economics for adjacent and satellite projects." It has NI 43-101 compliant resources of 6060 tonnes of uranium at grades of 0.1% uranium in seven deposits within about 30 kilometres of Nichols Ranch.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News