PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A prefeasibility study (PFS) has been launched at the Honeymoon uranium project, in South Australia, with completion of the study targeted for the second quarter of 2017.
ASX-listed Boss Uranium said on Wednesday that the PFS would consider opportunities to further optimise the process route and associated costs of the Honeymoon project, as well as conducting an in-fill drilling programme to further delineate the Jason’s deposit.
The launch of the PFS follows a successful expansion study in September, which considered issues identified by the previous owners that had affected the performance of the plant and included solutions in the design criteria, process routes and cost estimates to solve these problems.
The study’s base case investigated an initial two-million-pound-a-year operation, ramping up to 3.6-million pounds a year, potentially by the fifth year of operation. The base case costs were estimated at about $7-million for the restart of the existing plant, with a further $57-million to be spent to achieve the desired output.
In addition, $85-million will be required to bring operations at the Gould’s Dam deposit on line and ramp up production to 3.6-million pounds a year.
The PFS will include metallurgical testwork to support a "go forward" case at the mine, as well as upgraded mineral resource estimates and engineering to define the pre-works required to start up the existing plant.
Boss has previously said it was hoping to take a decision to mine by the end of 2017.