Name of the Project
Lake Maitland uranium project.

Location
Western Australia.

Project Owner/s
Uranium development and exploration company Toro Energy.

Project Description
Lake Maitland is one of three uranium deposits in Toro’s Wiluna uranium project.

A new scoping study contemplates mining and processing potential triuranium octoxide (U₃O₈) ore from the Lake Maitland deposit as a standalone operation and producing a U₃O₈ peroxide product (yellow cake), for sale. 

It also proposes stripping vanadium (V₂O₅) from the uranium processing flow stream, which is liberated from the U₃O₈ ore mineral, a potassium U₃O₈ vanadate, along with the U₃O₈ during leaching, to produce a low-value sodium hexavanadate, as a by-product. 

The study update has included a complete re-optimisation of the proposed mining pit and associated delivery schedule of ore to the mill.

The study proposes the production of 22-million pounds of U₃O₈ and 12.3-million pounds of V₂O₅ over a 16.3-year life-of-mine (LoM), processing two-million tonnes a year of ore at a run-of-mine U₃O₈ grade of 541 parts per million.

Average production is estimated at 1.3-million pounds a year of U₃O₈ (100% indicated resource) and 750 000 t/y V₂O₅ (100% inferred resource).

The mining technique proposed for use at the operation is conventional opencut using truck and shovel, but with premine dewatering where necessary.

The new proposed processing plant, developed over the recent years of research, will include a beneficiation plant using conventional coarse screens and desliming, pre- and post-leach pressure filtration, alkaline leach, ion exchange (IX), sodium diuranate precipitation, redisolution and U₃O₈ peroxide precipitation (yellow cake).

To take advantage of the V₂O₅ inherent in the pregnant leach solution owing to it being a fundamental part of the U₃O₈ ore mineral targeted in the leach, V₂O₅ is proposed to be separated in the IX plant and stripped from the IX resin before striping U₃O₈, before being precipitated as a red cake (sodium hexavanadate) before final product preparation as a by-product of the operation.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an estimated pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of A$907.9-million, about A$75-million more than the June 2024 scoping study. The internal rate of return is estimated at 56% over the LoM, with an expedited payback period of only 1.5 years.

Capital Expenditure
A$298.4-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
None stated.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
SRK Consulting Australasia and Strategic Metallurgy (scoping study).

Contact Details for Project Information
Toro Energy, tel +61 8 9214 2100 or email info@toroenergy.com.au.