ASX-listed Aura Energy has increased the mineral resources of its Tiris uranium project, in Mauritania, by 55% to 91.3-million pounds of triuranium octoxide (U3O8), up from the previously reported 58.9-million pounds of U3O8.
The mineral resource includes the Tiris East and Oum Ferkik project areas.
The company said in an update on June 12 that the recent 15 262 m drill programme delivered a large 28.9-million-pound U3O8 increase in the Tiris East uranium project’s mineral resources, totalling 76.6-million pounds of U3O8, delivered at a discovery cost of $0.14/lb of U3O8.
"The resource growth at Tiris confirms our view that this is an important uranium province with the capacity for further growth upside. The board believes the very significant increase in mineral resources resulting from the successful drilling campaign will have a materially positive impact on Tiris’ economics,” Aura MD and CEO Andrew Grove said.
Measured and indicated mineral resources increased by 35%, adding 10.3-million pounds of U3O8 and providing further confidence to the front-end engineering design (FEED) production schedule.
“Mineralisation was identified not only from high-strength radiometric anomalies, but from areas of low-strength anomalies, significantly increasing the exploration potential of the area as these low-level anomalies have been ignored in past exploration,” Groves explained.
He added that the drilling results and the increase in mineral resources both demonstrated significant future resource growth potential at Tiris from ongoing exploration activities.
The company said the major increase in the Tiris mineral resources reinforced Aura’s commitment to progress Tiris towards a development decision late this year or early 2025.
Further, it offers significant potential to materially enhance the FEED economics of a net present value of $388-million and internal rate of return of 36% after tax.
Aura said the increase in resources presented real opportunities to increase the project’s future scale beyond the current 17-year mine life at two-million pounds a year of U3O8 production.
Moreover, the company said additional mineral resources were defined from extensions to the known mineralisation and exhibited the same characteristics as the current shallow free digging mineralisation that had proven promising beneficiation characteristics.
Aura noted that mine scheduling and optimisation, including a review of the ore reserve estimate, would now be undertaken on the enhanced mineral resources.
“More opportunities remain to expand the known mineralisation within the current granted tenements. In addition, the potential for future discoveries within the 13 000 km2 of new tenement applications is significant as we have only just begun exploration over this district-scale opportunity.
“The increased mineral resource inventory will further support the funding and development of the Tiris uranium project in the near future,” Grove said.