Name of the Project
Wheeler River uranium project.

Location
The project is located in northern Saskatchewan, Canada.

Client
The project is a joint venture (JV) between Denison (90%) and JCU (Canada) Exploration Company (10%).

Project Description
The Wheeler River project is the largest undeveloped uranium project in the eastern portion of the Athabasca basin.

A prefeasibility study on the Wheeler River project has evaluated the potential economic merit of co-developing the Phoenix and Gryphon deposits.

The Phoenix high-grade deposit has been designed as an in situ recovery (ISR) mining operation, with associated processing to a finished product occurring at a plant to be built on site at Wheeler River. The Gryphon deposit has been designed as an underground mining operation, using a conventional long-hole mining approach with processing of mine production at the McClean Lake mill.

The Phoenix ISR and Gryphon underground operations together have probable mineral reserves of 109.4-million pounds of uranium (U₃O₈) from 1.39-million tonnes – Phoenix 59.7-million pounds of U₃O₈ from 141 000 t at 19.1% U₃O₈, while Gryphon has 49.7-million pounds U3O8 from 1.26-million tonnes at 1.8% U₃O₈.

The project has a mine life estimated at about 14 years, with average yearly production estimated at 7.8-million pounds of U₃O₈.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Wheeler River has a pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of C$1.31-billion and an internal rate return of 38.7%, with a payback of about 24 months.

Phoenix has a pretax NPV, at an 8% discount rate, of C$930.4-million and an IRR 43.3%.

Gryphon has a pretax NPV, at an 8% discount rate, of C$560.6-million and an IRR of return of 23.2%..

Value
Initial capital costs are estimated at C$322.5-million.

Duration
Preproduction activities are estimated to begin in 2021, assuming receipt of required regulatory approvals, with first production from the Phoenix deposit expected in 2024.

Initial construction at Gryphon is expected to start by 2026, with first production expected to be achieved in 2030.

Latest Developments
Spurred on by the positive results of its PFS for Wheeler River project, Denison Mines has announced that C$10.3-million will be spent on advancing the project in 2019.

The budget approved by the Wheeler River JV will be used to initiate the environmental assessment process, as well as engineering studies and related programmes required to advance the high-grade Phoenix deposit as an ISR mining operation.

The initiation of the environmental assessment process and studies, designed to ultimately support a feasibility study, illustrates the company’s commitment to achieving the project development timeline outlined in the PFS, Denison president and CEO David Cates has said.

The company plans to complete the feasibility study by the end of 2020 and to have its final environmental approvals in hand by 2021 or 2022, at which point a definitive development decision will be announced.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Denison Mines, tel +1416 979 1991 or fax +1416 979 5893.