PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Uranium hopeful Aura Energy is considering a smaller-scale development for its Haggan project, in Sweden, in an effort to cut back on capital costs.
A 2012 scoping study evaluated the construction of a 30-million-tonne-a-year operation, and estimated a price tag of $540-million and operating costs of $13.50/lb.
However, given the current market conditions, the company has now considered three smaller size options, namely 3.5-million tonnes a year, 5-million tonnes a year and 7.5-million tonnes a year.
Capital costs would range between $150-million and $250-million, while operating costs were estimated at between $21/lb and $25/lb for the smallest-scale operation and between $18/lb and $22/lb for the 7.5-million-tonne-a-year operation.
Aura MD Bob Beeson said that despite the initial smaller scale developments being considered, the company would still progress the Haggan project to its ultimate scale of 30-million tonnes a year.
“Haggan has many of the requirements of an exceptional, long-life mine - extensive near-surface, easy to mine mineralistion, an extractive technology ideally suited to its type of mineralisation, and located in a stable developed country with centuries of mining tradition.”
He added that the low capital and operating costs associated with the mine also made the project a strategic development, and a viable project for decades into the future.
The project currently has a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant inferred resource of 800-million pounds of uranium oxide.