PERTH (miningweekly.com) -  Uranium developer Boss Energy has ramped up construction and development work at its A$113-million Honeymoon project, in South Australia.

Boss in June approved the capital spend to develop the Honeymoon project, which is expected to have a mine life of more than ten years, at a production rate of 2.45-million pounds a year, at a cash cost of $18.46/lb, and an all-in sustaining cost of $25.62/lb.

Boss said on Monday that since making the final investment decision, the company has taken significant steps towards ensuring that production starts in the December quarter of 2023.

This development activity includes ordering key equipment, advancing the detailed engineering and undertaking the initial wellfield works and camp refurbishment. The current construction activity involves three start-up wellfields. Specialised SMP contractors have mobilised to the Honeymoon site for the piping and electrical works, with wellfield drilling to commence in mid-August.

A building contractor has mobilised to start with the refurbishment and upgrade of the mine camp and administration areas. High speed data services have been connected and site access road upgrades are scheduled to commence in late August.

All critical path items remain on track for scheduled delivery. To mitigate possible freight and logistic delays, Boss has focussed early engineering activities on getting the long lead procurement items ordered and delivered to site, the company said.

Mobilisation of construction personnel for each aspect of the project will start as soon as these materials are delivered to site.

Meanwhile, the recruitment programme for a highly experienced project and operational team is progressing well.

“We are pushing ahead rapidly with our construction and development plan on multiple fronts. As part of our strategy, we are taking extensive measures aimed at mitigating any delays we may encounter due to the equipment availability and freight challenges around the world,” Boss MD Duncan Craib said.

“This approach ensures we will meet our goal of being Australia’s next uranium producer, with first production set for the December quarter of 2023.”