PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Honeymoon uranium project, in South Australia, will require an initial capital investment of $10-million to allow for a restart with a production of 0.88-million pounds of uranium oxide (U₃O₈) a year.

A prefeasibility study (PFS) found that the Stage 1 restart will see project developer Boss Resources using the existing solvent extraction plant, with first production expected within 12 months of restart.

The Stage 2 ramp-up of plant capacity to two-million tonnes a year of U₃O₈ equivalent, using a combined solvent extraction and ion exchange system, will require a further $58-million in capital.

The Stage 3 ramp-up to 3.2-million tonnes a year of U₃O8 equivalent through the addition of further ion exchange columns will require a further investment of $78-million.

The project is expected to have a total mine life of around seven years.

“The Honeymoon project is unique in that it is a fully permitted uranium operation with $170-million of established infrastructure, a plant under care and maintenance, in good condition, and that has produced and exported uranium from the safe jurisdiction fof South Australia, where it holds approved heritage and native title mining agreements,” Boss CEO Duncan Craib said on Wednesday.

“To ensure a pathway for continued success, a staged approach to restart the project was implemented by the board to address the challenges which the previous owners had encountered.”

Craib said that within a relatively short period of time, Boss successfully proved up an increase in the uranium resource and in September of last year completed an expansion study that provided the basis for the PFS.

“The PFS has delivered impressive results, confirming the technical and financial robustness of the Honeymoon project, which incorporates a combination of low upfront capital requirements and low operating costs that are unrivalled amongst our ASX peer group. The economic rationale of this study arguably positions the company to be Australia’s next uranium producer.”

Boss has now moved the Honeymoon project to the next stage of development, being the field leach trial, which would be incorporated into the definitive feasibility study.

The company was hoping to restart Stage 1 production at the start of 2018, with Stage 2 production expected to follow in 2019.