Denison Mines Corp. (TSX: DML) announced this morning the approval of starting an independent feasibility study for the in-situ recovery mining operation proposed for the Phoenix uranium deposit at the Wheeler River property. Consequently, the company is also selecting consulting firm Wood PLC to lead and author the study.
Prior to this, the firm completed a pre-feasibility study for Wheeler River in 2018 that included considering the potential economic merit of developing the Phoenix deposit as an in-situ recovery operation. The study reported a stand-alone base case pre-tax NPV8% of $930.4 million, 43.3% IRR, and average operating costs of US$3.33 per U3O8 pound.
“The ISR de-risking activities we’ve completed since the publication of the Pre-Feasibility Study for Wheeler River in 2018 have been designed to support the completion of a future Feasibility Study,” said Denison Mines CEO David Cates.
The Wheeler River property hosts Phoenix and Gryphon uranium deposits. Based on the same pre-feasibility study, the property is estimated for a base case pre-tax NPV8% of $1.31 billion and mine production of 109.4 million U3O8 pounds over 14-year mine life.
“Based on the results of field programs and metallurgical lab testing completed over the last three years, we are confident that the Project is ready to advance into a full Feasibility Study,” Cates added.
The planned feasibility study is expected to include details of the ongoing environmental assessment, an updated mineral resource estimate, optimization of mine and process plant designs, and a class 3 estimate of capital costs.
The uranium mining firm has an effective 95% ownership in Wheeler River, 90% is of direct nature and 5% is indirect interest through the company’s 50% ownership in JCU (Canada) Exploration Company.
Denison Mines Corp. last traded at $1.80 on the TSX.
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