CSE-listed Western Uranium and Vanadium has acquired property in Utah to build a state-of-the-art mineral processing plant to recover uranium, vanadium and cobalt.
The plant will process ore mined from mines owned by Western, notably the Sunday mine complex, and ore produced by other miners.
“This is one of the most significant events in the history of our company. The processing facility, when completed, will provide Western with uranium and vanadium to sell into improving markets and thus result in substantial cash flow from operations,” said president and CEO George Glasier on Monday.
The company is confident that the uranium market is in the early stages of a sustained upswing, with demand projected to exceed available supply in the next several years. While capital for good projects appears to be available, the ready supply of mining and processing equipment, as well as the workforce needed, could be a challenge to meet future demand.
Western also believes that the vanadium market is poised for growth as vanadium redox flow batteries are increasingly deployed as stationary energy storage solutions.
At the request of a number of individuals and entities, the facility will be designed to recover cobalt, a metal essential in battery technology and electric vehicles. Within the state of Utah, there are numerous occurrences of cobalt which may be economical to mine, if a processing facility were available. Construction of the cobalt circuit at the facility will be dependent on the availability of feed material.