PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Uranium explorer Extract Resources would complete the definitive feasibility study (DFS) for the Rössing South project, in Namibia, before the end of 2010, it said on Thursday.

It was expected that the DFS would confirm the project’s potential as one of the world’s largest uranium mines.

Extract reported that a resource upgrade was due to be released in the third quarter of this year. The company’s technical team has been focused on infill drilling with the aim of upgrading the inferred resource to indicated status.

The upgraded resource was expected to define a “significant resource” that could be converted to reserve, and could be used for a mining inventory for the DFS, Extract said.

The base-case mine plan for Rössing South remains low-risk, bulk tonnage, openpit mining, with ore processed through a conventional agitated tank leach plant.

Extract said in a statement that results from the recently completed pilot plant test work programme were still being returned and interpreted, however, available results were “encouraging” and provided further support for the base-case flow sheet.

Meanwhile, the uranium explorer reported that work on the environmental-impact assessment and management plan was progressing on schedule in parallel with preparation for a mining licence application.

The outcomes of this work would be used to support a mining licence application over the Rössing South area, before the end of the year.

Studies have indicated that the Rössing South project contains a maiden resource of 108-million pounds of uranium oxide at a grade of 430 parts per million. This could support a production rate of about 14,8-million pounds a year of uranium oxide.

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