Name of the Project
Lance Projects – Ross and Kendrick production areas.

Location
Wyoming, US.

Project Owner/s
Peninsula Energy.

Project Description
The new life-of-mine (LoM) plan for the Ross and Kendrick production areas completed in August 2023 delivered a robust and resilient project development plan for Lance, including an accelerated production ramp-up schedule.

The ten-year LoM model is based on a total resource base of 21.8-million pounds of uranium estimated to be contained within the production areas. LoM uranium production is estimated at 14.8-million pounds from the production areas.

The production and LoM plan has been developed for steady-state production of 1.8-million pounds of yellowcake a year from Ross and Kendrick.

The LoM model features a complete 5 000 gallons per minute in situ recovery (ISR) plant to produce up to two-million pounds a year of dry yellowcake product.

The Ross facility, built in 2015 as an alkaline ISR satellite facility, is undergoing an expansion to increase its production capacity from one-million pounds a year to two-million pounds a year.  The expansion also aims to add the capability to produce a finished dry yellowcake product, uranium oxide.

Kendrick is the next sequential production area.

The current LoM plan does not include production from Lance’s Barber area, which provides a future expansion opportunity at the project.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of $116.2-million and an internal rate of return of 26%.

Capital Expenditure
LoM capex is estimated at $285.5-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Production is expected to start in late 2024.

Latest Developments
Plant construction and wellfield development activities are progressing on schedule and close to budget.

Peninsula has reported that all major piping and tank modifications for low-pH ISR operations have been completed inside the previously built Ross satellite plant.

To date, the Phase 2 expansion project efforts have remained focused on major equipment procurement and the preparation of the building foundations.

About 87% of building foundations have been laid, with about 191 m³ of concrete placed. The remaining foundations have been intentionally left open for better access to set structural steel and process equipment within the plant building footprint.

Concrete work will continue into August, after which the plant construction schedule will be shifted to a 24/7 rotation, enabling the different trades to work with less interference.

The structural steel and additional materials for the processing plant building have been delivered to site. The building will be erected once the concrete foundations and slab have met design strength and the major equipment is placed.

Sections of the steel building structure are being prefabricated on site so that they can be moved into place when needed.

Meanwhile, equipment procurement activities remain on schedule, with all the major equipment on order. Expected delivery dates are meeting or exceeding the requirements of the construction schedule, Peninsula has said.

The first piece of major equipment for the project was received six weeks ahead of expected delivery, and process tanks for the southern half of the building have all been received.

To date, overall equipment costs are tracking on budget.

The company is also preparing auxiliary facilities designed to improve low-pH ISR operations.

Peninsula has said that, in recent months, a free-standing building has been built to house fine solids separation and removal equipment. The process equipment has been installed in the building, and the site construction team is installing the piping and electrical connections.

Peninsula has indicated that the removal of suspended solids from the ISR production stream will enhance operational efficiency.

The company’s employee and drilling contractor teams continue to advance the development of new wellfield facilities.

The previously developed wellfield areas of mine units 1 (MU-1) and 2 (MU-2) are available for resumption of uranium recovery operations. 

However, the company is actively developing a new wellfield production area, MU-3, for which it completed the installation of the required monitoring well network in 2023. 

A complete data package documenting the baseline water quality and hydrologic properties of the unit was submitted to the Wyoming regulatory authorities – a requirement for all new ISR production areas.

Regulatory review and approval are expected to follow a 90-day timeline.

The company has 11 drilling rigs under contract to install ISR pattern injection and production wells in the new MU-3 area. Header house 11 (HH-11) will be the first of three modules placed into production in MU-3.

The installation of the pattern wells for HH-11 is 97% complete, with the surface facilities, including the header house building, well plumbing, electrical connections and meter runs, 63% complete.

The construction of wellfield infrastructure, such as pipelines, powerlines, fences and roads for MU-3, is 71% complete.

Peninsula has said the preparation of HH-11 is on schedule to allow for the start of preconditioning operations in the third quarter.

Production restart is scheduled for later in 2024 and will be marked by the progressive commissioning of the new central processing plant circuits, following the initial recovery of uranium delivered to the plant ion-exchange circuit from wellfield solutions.

The company restarted wellfield preconditioning operations in MU-1 at Lance during July 2024. It explained that, to successfully employ the low-pH ISR methodology, the wellfield solution pH had to be reduced from the natural baseline level to a pH of about two standard units. To accomplish this, the host formation was flushed with preconditioned low pH solutions.

Every new operational area is expected to be preconditioned over two to three months, before being introduced to the process plant uranium recovery circuit.

Peninsula has said that MU-1 is being preconditioned so that the wellfield will be ready for production operations as soon as the process plant becomes available. The first header house in the new MU-3 will also be preconditioned in sequence before starting uranium recovery operations in the plant.

The company has reported that the Lance team has been conducting laboratory- and pilot-scale testing on solutions produced from the wellfield to ensure operational familiarity with the new additional process steps and that the project will function at a high level from the start of production.

Peninsula has said the advanced testing of the process operations has led to more confidence in the project’s being able to produce a high-quality finished product while minimising process losses.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Western Water Consultants (definitive feasibility study); and Samuel (detailed engineering and initial long lead time equipment procurement works, and Ross central processing plant expansion).

Contact Details for Project Information
Peninsula Energy, tel +61 8 6263 4461 or email info@pel.net.au.