Vancouver – With the uranium spot price reaching an all-time high, International Uranium (IUC-T, IUCPF-O) is restarting some of its mines located in the Four Corners region of Arizona, Colorado and Utah.
Mining operations have recommenced on projects in the Colorado Plateau, and are planned at the Henry Mountains and Arizona Strip districts, with ore being stockpiled at the International Uranium’s (IUC’s) White Mesa uranium-vanadium mill in southeastern Utah. The company anticipates an initial production rate of about 3.9 million lbs. of U3O8 and 5.9 million lbs. vanadium while stockpiles are processed then settling in at about 1.5-to-2 million lbs. U3O8 annually.
The White Mesa mill is currently working through an alternate feed contract expected to net IUC more than 500,000 lbs. of U3O8 over the remainder of 2006. The 1,800-tonne-per-day facility has been in operation for over 20 years and is strategically situated in proximity to most of the major western U.S. uranium deposits.
At its Colorado Plateau operations, IUC is immediately reactivating the Pandora, Topaz, Sunday and St. Jude mines, to be followed two additional mines in early-2007. All of the company’s mines in the district, which straddles the southern border between Colorado and Utah, are permitted. Mineralization is associated with the Uravan mineral belt where uranium has been deposited into alluvial fan formations (sandstones) by ancient braided stream systems to form elongate, tabular bodies paralleling bedding within the paleochannels. The deposits contain a combined resource estimate of 1.2 million tonnes grading 0.208% U3O8 and 1.23% V2O5, or about 5.5 million contained lbs. of U3O8.
At IUC’s Henry Mountains complex, in southeastern Utah, permitting of the Tony M mine is planned with operations expected to commence by mid-2007. Development of its Bullfrog deposit will start in mid-2007 with production by the middle of the following year. The deposits host a 4.9 million tonne resource averaging 0.22% U3O8 for about 24 million lbs. of contained U3O8. Uranium deposits are hosted in basal sandstones also related to the mineralization in the Colorado Plateau district.
Arizona Strip contains a 270,000 tonne resource in four deposits that average 0.66% U3O8, giving about 4 million contained lbs. of U3O8. Uranium mineralization in the northeastern Arizona camp occurs in a solution breccia environment with the mineral (primarily pitchblende) concentrated within the matrix material (sand, silt and clay).
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