TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Namibia-focused uranium project developer Forsys Metals has reported a 14.8% rise in reserves, higher yearly and life-of-mine output and lower operating costs for its Norasa uranium project, in the Erongo region, following the completion of a feasibility study.

Norasa comprises the Valencia main and satellite pits as well as the Namibplaas deposits and is considered as potentially one of the next big uranium-producing mines of the near future.

The TSX-, Frankfurt- and Namibia-listed company  said on Wednesday that the economic analysis resulted in an estimated after-tax net present value at a discount rate of 8% of $383.4-million. Using the initial investment and operating cash flows from inception, the after-tax internal rate of return was estimated to be 26%.

The project’s capital outlay would amount to $432.8-million, up from the $392-million estimated in the key performance indicators in the National Instrument 43-101-compliant technical report released on the project on March 27 last year.

The latest study resulted in Norasa’s reserves being estimated at about 90.7-million pounds of uranium oxide (U₃O₈), up from 79-million pounds of U₃O₈ reported in October 2013. Forsys added 10.7-million pounds of U₃O₈ reserves from the Namibplaas deposit, using a 140 parts per million cutoff grade.

The project’s expected operating costs were $32.96/lb U₃O₈ over the first five years and $34.72/lb U₃O₈ over the 15-year life of the mine. The updated cost estimates represented a significant reduction from the 2013 ‘Engineering Cost Study’ estimates of $34.76/lb and $38.20/lb U₃O₈, respectively.

The Norasa production schedule had been modified to incorporate the updated mineral reserves and to include a processing rate increase to 11.2-million tonnes a year, up from 8.2-million tonnes a year envisioned in 2010.

The project was expected to produce about 5.2-million pounds of uranium per year over its mine life.

"Norasa is one of the very few uranium projects in the world that is construction ready with a mining licence. The completion of the feasibility study confirms the robustness of Norasa's economics,” Forsys CEO Marcel Hilmer noted.

“We believe that the study results will attract strategic partners and investors, and provide us with alternatives for the next phase of Norasa's development," he added.

Several other uranium development projects were creeping along the value curve, as the lacklustre performance of the uranium price failed to provide inventors with an incentive to invest. The uranium spot price had rebounded off the bottom it hit following Japan's 2011 Fukushima disaster, but it remained below the level needed to boost production.

On Wednesday, Forsys TSX-listed stock gained 25% to C$0.30 apiece.