VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Texas-based miner Uranium Energy Corp (UEC) has received a final mine area permit issued by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for its Burke Hollow in-situ recovery (ISR) project, in the south of the state.
The Burke Hollow project is the third development as part of the company's hub-and-spoke strategy that is designed for low-cost ISR mining operations. Operations including the Palangana ISR mine, the permitted Goliad ISR project and the development-stage Burke Hollow ISR project centres around the fully-licensed Hobson processing facility.
“The issuance of the final mine area permit represents the culmination of successful drill campaigns and permitting activities that have coalesced into a major accomplishment for the UEC team. Our South Texas portfolio of low-cost ISR projects remains our cornerstone asset, and the addition of Burke Hollow to our permitted Palangana and Goliad projects gives the company a strong foundation on which to establish UEC as a leading uranium producer in the years to come,” president and CEO Amir Adnani stated on Tuesday.
The mine area permit authorises nearly 4 500 ha for mining multiple production sands within two large confirmed production areas discovered to date.
TCEQ had earlier issued two final Class 1 disposal well permits for the Burke Hollow project. The radioactive material licence is currently in the technical review stage and the aquifer exemption request has already been submitted to the US Environmental Protection Agency. The receipt of these permits, in addition to the already approved disposal well and mine permits, will allow UEC to start production development at Burke Hollow, one of the company's largest ISR projects.
EXPLORATION SUCCESS
UEC started exploration drilling at Burke Hollow in 2012, and discovered three mineralised trends the same year. Subsequently, the project has been expanded to its current size of more than 8 000 ha.
To date, the company has discovered uranium mineralisation in three separate mineralised horizons, with two distinct and separate trend areas of the property, resulting in an inferred mineral resource of 5.12-million pounds of uranium, grading 0.09%.
The mineral resource estimate is based on 75 000 m of drilling in 526 holes since mid-2012.
Only about half of the project, about 72 km from the company's Hobson processing plant, has been explored to date.
During fiscal 2016, a drilling campaign was conducted to extend the first area scheduled for production at Burke Hollow. Thirty-two wide-spaced exploration holes were completed for a total of 5 180 m. The objective of these holes was to bracket the projected mineralised trend extending from the resource area. Detailed delineation of the bracketed trend and further trend extension drilling will occur in the next drilling campaign.
Drilling results from these 32 holes have extended the mineralised trend from 2.73 km to about 6 km, with several kilometres of potential open trend remaining.