PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Uranium developer Toro Energy has flagged the potential for significant cost reductions at its Wiluna uranium project, in Western Australia, following leach testing results.
The ASX-listed company on Wednesday said that the leach testing results far exceeded expectations with efficiencies, pulp densities and post leach liquor tenors significantly better than those from the initial beneficiation and process design studies.
Toro told shareholders that the results confirmed and further enhanced the potential to substantially decrease the size of the leach circuit and decrease the leach residence time required for the treatment of Lake Maitland beneficiated concentrates, and in doing so, reduce the cost of constructing and operating the proposed hydrometallurgical plant.
Toro is planning production of some 1.3-million tonnes a year of ore from Wiluna, over a mine life of 16 years, incorporating the Centipede, Millipede, Lake Maitland and Lake Way ores.