JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Australia-based Peninsula Energy said on Tuesday that it was accelerating the rate of production at its Lance projects, in Wyoming, in the US, and that it expected to reach its first-stage production target of 600 000 lb/y to 700 000 lb/y in the first half of next year.
“The last five weeks have seen the rate of uranium production increase dramatically,” MD and CEO Gus Simpson stated, adding that about 7 000 lb of uranium oxide (U3O8) had been extracted from wellfields in the first ten days of July.
During the June quarter, 28 585 lb of U3O8 were extracted, which was an increase of almost 20 000 lb over the March quarter, despite a seven-day plant outage, which had a 3 000 lb impact on production.
Production in the June quarter came mainly from header houses one and two, while houses three and four were successfully commissioned and only started producing meaningful quantities this month.
The Lance projects’ production would increase to 1.2-million pounds a year in the second stage of development and to 2.3-million pounds a year in the third stage of development.