Uranium company Boss Energy has begun work on accelerating the development of Gould’s Dam, which is a satellite project to the nearby Honeymoon mine, in South Australia.
This follows recent high-grade drill results that highlight the potential for Gould’s Dam to help lift Honeymoon’s production rate from 2.45-million pounds a year to the export permit limit of 3.3-million pounds a year.
The current delineation programme provides data that will be used in wellfield planning and other advanced predevelopment activity. It will also enable Boss to complete detailed geological and mineralisation models to support the ongoing development work and preparation for an in-situ recovery mining lease proposal for Gould’s Dam.
This will lead into the next phase of mine plan development, including pump testing of the mineralised aquifer with the Gould’s Dam indicated resource and core sampling testwork.
The Gould’s Dam deposit is located about 80 km north-west of the Honeymoon mine and currently contains a Joint Ore Reserve Commitee- (Jorc-) compliant resource of 4.4-million tonnes at 650 ppm uranium oxide (U308) for 6.3-million pounds contained U308 in the indicated category and 17.7-million tonnes at 480 ppm U308 for 18.7-million pounds contained U308.
The global Honeymoon resource stands at 71.6-million pounds with an average grade of 620 ppm U308, using a cut-off grade of 250 ppm.
The current Honeymoon restart feasibility studies use only a portion of Honeymoon’s Jorc resource, excluding 36-million pounds of Jorc resource outside the Honeymoon Restart Area, which could expand the mine life, and Boss’ defined exploration target could potentially extend the mine life beyond the initial 11 years and increase the production profile. Honeymoon’s Federal EPIP Act approvals allow export of more than three-million pounds a year U308 equivalent.