After operations were suspended in November 2013, the Honeymoon uranium project in South Australia has enjoyed a patient revival.
The rebirth comes at the hands of Boss Energy, which acquired the project from Uranium One in December 2015 and has since transformed it into an operating uranium mine once again, this week announcing the recommencement of mining operations.
While Honeymoon was suspended due to falling uranium prices, significant technical work needed to be done to ensure the project would be competitive on the global stage.
This included changing operations from a solvent extraction mining method to ion exchange, which accounts for about 60 per cent of the world’s supply of uranium, including all operations in Kazakhstan.
Boss managing director Duncan Craib said the recommencement of Honeymoon operations was a capstone moment for the company.
“It is a testament to the hard work and effort undertaken by all Boss employees over many years to reach today’s pivotal milestone, the commencement of mining activities on Honeymoon,” he said.
“The project development is proceeding to plan and remains on time and on budget as Boss moves towards the restart of Honeymoon in a few months’ time.
“Our timing is looking ideal, with the uranium market continuing to tighten and the spot price moving up, now trading at decade highs of $US69 ($107.5) per pound U3O8 (uranium oxide).”
Boss will undertake wellfield pre-conditioning before uranium production can commence, which involves careful commissioning of each part of the treatment circuit. This is expected to take approximately two months.
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