Boss Energy is timing its run perfectly as it looks to become Australia’s next uranium producer.
The company announced a critical milestone en route to restarting production at its Honeymoon uranium project in South Australia, with the drilling, casing and screening of the first three wellfields complete.
The wellfields comprise 86 drilled and cased new production wells and 31 recompletions of existing wells.
Boss said there are a handful of steps remaining before uranium production can commence, which includes running structured pumping tests.
“The purpose of this work is to ensure the pump set-points are correct, and that the wells are hydraulically connected to one another in the orebody,” Boss said. “This will pave the way to start wellfield flushing and commissioning.”
Boss managing director Duncan Craib said 77 per cent of the project’s capital expenditure had been spent so far, totalling $81.5 million. The company remains fully funded to production, supported by $103 million of cash on hand and a $105 million strategic uranium stockpile.
“The project development is proceeding to plan and remains on time and on budget as we move towards the restart of Honeymoon,” Craib said. “Our timing is looking ideal, with the uranium market continuing to tighten and the spot price moving up.”
According to Trading Economics, uranium prices reached a 14-month high of $US57.75 ($87.53) per pound (lb) in the second week of June before cooling slightly to $US56.20 ($85.18)/lb on June 26. This is still 14 per cent up from a year ago.
The commodity continues to be supported by the global energy crisis, where the Russia–Ukraine war has quelled access to energy minerals such as thermal coal and natural gas. As a result, many countries are including nuclear energy in their future energy mix.
Boss aims to achieve first uranium production in the December quarter of 2023. The mine hasn’t produced uranium since 2013, when it was suspended under Uranium One’s ownership.
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