Uranium and vanadium development company Anfield Energy has significantly expanded its uranium resource base with the addition of the 18.1-million-pound Marquez-Juan Tafoya project, near Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The project, acquired from NYSE American- and TSX-V-listed enCore Energy, is now Anfield’s biggest single uranium project, in terms of resource size.

CEO Corey Dias says Marquez-Juan Tafoya will both complement Anfield’s existing portfolio of assets and serve as part of its longer-term uranium production strategy.

Anfield’s near-term strategy centres on its advanced Utah and Colorado uranium and vanadium projects – Velvet Wood, West Slope and Slick Rock – underpinned by its wholly-owned Shootaring Canyon mill, one of only three licensed conventional mills in the US. Its longer-term production strategy includes the acquisition of complementary assets with potential to feed additional uranium and vanadium resource to the Shootaring Canyon mill.

“With a global nuclear renaissance underway, we believe that our pursuit of advanced uranium deposits that will facilitate near-term uranium production is critical at this time as the global uranium supply deficit continues to grow. As Kazakhstan pivots East to support China in its robust nuclear growth plans, an important piece of US utility uranium supply is increasingly at risk. This scenario highlights an unquestionable opportunity for uranium producers in the US,” Dias says.

As consideration for the acquisition of Neutron, the company has issued 185-million common shares to enCore and has agreed to pay C$5-million in cash.

enCore executive chairperson William Sheriff adds in a separate statement that the sale of Marquez-Juan Tafoya represents the third successful transaction in his company’s ongoing programme of divesting established uranium assets that are not in its production pipeline.

“This transaction provides us with both cash and participation as a significant shareholder in one of only three licensed conventional uranium mills in the United States,” he notes.

enCore’s focus is on advancing the Rosita and Alta Mesa in-situ recovery uranium central processing plant, which will be brought back into production in 2023 and 2024, respectively.