Name of the Project
Tiris uranium project.

Location
Sahara Desert, north-east Mauritania.

Project Owner/s
Tiris Resources (85%), a subsidiary of Aura Energy, and the Mauritanian government, through its agency Société Mauritanienne des Hydrocarbons et de Patrimone Minier (15%).

Project Description
Tiris is the first major calcrete uranium discovery in the region.

Average uranium oxide, at full production, is estimated at two-million pounds.

The project plans to deliver 25.5-million pounds of uranium oxide over 16 years.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an after-tax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of $226-million and an internal rate of return of 28%, with a project payback of 4.5 years.

Capital Expenditure
$178.2-million.

Planned Start/End Date
The project has an 18-month construction period.

Latest Developments
Aura Energy has identified exploration targets to extend the project’s resource.

The company has said that preliminary work has identified seven exploration targets in Tiris East as extensions to the existing 58.9-million-pound uranium oxide resource, ranging between 30-million and 60-million tonnes, at between 120 parts per million (ppm) and 240 ppm for between 8-million and 32-million pounds of uranium oxide.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Minecore (engineering consultant); Simulus Group (leaching/ion-exchange engineering consultant); Adelaide Control Engineering (uranium-processing engineering consultant); Mining Plus (mine design consultant); General Studies and Achievements in Africa (geotechnical consultant): PhotoSat (satellite surveying); H&S Consultants (resource estimation); 3D Exploration (grade determination by gamma logging); Poseidon Geophysics (downhole gamma logging); Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation (metallurgical testwork, steady-state simulation, uranium disequilibrium); Australian MinMet Metallurgical Laboratories (metallurgical testwork); CSIRO Minerals, University of South Australia, Pontifex Associates (mineralogy); Activation Laboratories (uranium determination); Geoterra (hydrogeological consulting); SES (water geophysics); ALS Global (chemical analysis); Wallis Drilling (air-core drilling); Capital Drilling (diamond drilling); Earth Systems (environmental- and social-impact assessment consultants); METS Engineering (operating cost review); Golders Associates (groundwater supply review); ANSTO Minerals (bulk metallurgical testwork); Mintek (pilot-scale tests); DRA Global and its subsidiary SENET (front-end engineering design study); and Wallbridge Gilbert Aztec and Adelaide Control Engineering (design of the processing circuit).

Contact Details for Project Information
Aura Energy, tel +61 3 9516 6500 or email info@auraenergy.com.au.