TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Integrated US-based uranium mining company Energy Fuels has added a third fully licensed in situ recovery uranium production facility to its portfolio.
The TSX- and NYSE MKT-listed company on Friday announced that it had successfully closed the acquisition of Mesteña Uranium, whose primary asset was the Alta Mesa project, in South Texas.
Despite Alta Mesa currently being on standby, it was capable of ramping up to commercial production levels within a six-month window of a positive production decision, with only minimal capital requirements, the company advised.
According to Energy Fuels, Alta Mesa would be capable of producing 1.5-million pounds of uranium a year. The company expected to file a technical report outlining a maiden resource estimate at Alta Mesa within the next month.
President and CEO Stephen Antony stated that the company now had three uranium production facilities in the US and, at 11.5-million-pounds-a-year of operational processing capacity, it had more capacity than any other uranium producer in the US.
“It is important to note that the US remains the largest consumer of uranium in the world today. Additionally, our acquisition of Mesteña is of particular importance in today's current uranium price environment, as we believe our all-in costs of production at Alta Mesa will become one of the lowest in our current portfolio, along with our alternate feed material business and our Canyon mine.
“As uranium markets improve, Alta Mesa offers Energy Fuels production scalability that we can bring online sooner and at lower uranium prices,” he said.
The price of spot uranium has been at around the $30/lb mark since the start of this year, trading at $28.25/lb early this month. Analysts expected a supply shortfall towards the end of the decade, with the price probably starting to move around 2018/19.