Name of the Project
Kayelekera uranium restart project.

Location
Karonga district, northern Malawi.

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

Project Description
Kayelekera successfully produced uranium in the past, having delivered about 11-million pounds of uranium 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 uranium price of $90/lb.
Under the plan, the life-of-mine (LoM) production target is estimated at 19.3-million pounds of triuranium octoxide over a ten-year mine life. Production of 2.4-million pounds of uranium 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 uranium 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 uranium 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
Production ramp-up at the Kayelekera mine is progressing, with the operation on track to reach nameplate output in the second quarter of 2026.

The processing plant operated at about 80% during the second half of February, with milling rates reaching about 65% of steady-state levels.

Lotus has said that existing acid inventories and an ongoing delivery schedule will support the ramp-up to full production during the quarter.

Meanwhile, cold commissioning of the mine’s on-site acid plant has started, with hot commissioning scheduled for April.

The company is also continuing work with converters to complete final product acceptance ahead of uranium deliveries.

MD Greg Bittar said in a statement on March 10 that operational performance had improved steadily in recent weeks.

The company noted that once final product acceptance is achieved with one converter, it will be able to swap product between converters, providing greater flexibility across supply contracts and future uranium sales.

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.