Name of the Project
Kayelekera uranium restart project.

Location
Karonga district, northern Malawi.

Project Owner/s
Advanced uranium (U₃O₈) developer Lotus Resources' 85%-owned subsidiary Lotus Africa.

Project Description
Kayelekera, currently under care and maintenance, successfully produced U₃O₈ in the past, having delivered about 11-million pounds of U₃O₈ to the market from 2009 to 2014.

An accelerated restart plan completed in October 2024 has promised positive operational and financial outcomes, assuming a long-term U₃O₈ price of $90/lb.

Under the plan, the life-of-mine (LoM) production target is estimated at 19.3-million pounds of U₃O₈ over a ten-year mine life. Production of 2.4-million pounds of U₃O₈ is expected over the first seven years of operation.

Potential Job Creation
More than 600 jobs will be created in the local community. The project’s workforce is expected to expand as work progresses, ensuring that the mine restarts on schedule.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The restart plan promises pretax and after-tax net present value of $439-million and $301-million, respectively, with pretax and after-tax internal rate of return of 80% and 66%, respectively. Payback should be achieved within two years.

Capital Expenditure
The October 2024 accelerated restart plan reduces initial restart capital through a phased approach by focusing on capital items essential to the restart, with the remaining capital expenditure (capex) continuing off the critical path to optimise operations and cost structure. 

As a result, the initial restart capex to first U₃O₈ production has been reduced to $50-million from $88-million.

Planned Start/End Date
In a statement issued by Lotus on October 8, 2024, it reported that the time to first U₃O₈ production had been reduced from about 15 months to between eight and ten months by phasing in the completion of nonessential site infrastructure, such as grid power and an acid plant rebuild, beyond first production.

Latest Developments
Lotus Resources announced on September 1 that it had produced the first batch of U₃O₈.

The milestone follows the successful commissioning of the processing plant, with production planned to ramp up to 2.4-million pounds of U₃O₈ a year in the first quarter of 2026. The restart has been delivered on schedule and within budget, the company reported. Lotus will now start sending yellowcake to the converters for qualification. 

The company aims to reach steady-state production of 200 000 lb/m in the first quarter of 2026. It has secured four binding sales agreements for up to 3.8-million pounds of U₃O₈ from 2026, including with three North American utilities.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Orelogy Mining Consultants (pit optimisation, mine design and production scheduling ore reserve); Gill Lane Consulting (mineral resource estimate); Merrill Ford Independent Metallurgical Operations (metallurgical/process design); Steinert (ore sorting); Nagrom (metallurgical testwork); Senet (process plant and infrastructure, and cost estimate compilation); SLR Consulting (tailings and water); Mine Technics (openpit); SLR Consulting (plant); InfinityCorp (financial model); Dhamana (community and environment); and Mine Earth (mine closure plan and cost estimate).

Contact Details for Project Information
Lotus Resources, tel +61 89 2000 3427 or email info@lotusresources.com.au.