Uranium Energy‘s (NYSE-A: UEC) Roughrider project in northern Saskatchewan aims to be a high-margin producer with one of the lowest capital spending profiles in Canada, according to an initial economic study.
The project acquired from Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO; ASX: RIO) for US$150 million two years ago has an after-tax net present value of US$946 million at an 8% discount rate, an internal rate of return of 40% and a payback period of 1.4 years, UEC said on Friday.
Initial capex is estimated at US$545 million, including a proposed mill with a nominal throughput of 400 tonnes per day. This would give Roughrider one of the lowest capex profiles in the country, according to the study. The project’s all-in sustaining cost is pegged at US$20.48 per lb. uranium oxide (U3O8).
“This initial economic assessment marks a pivotal milestone for Roughrider, validating it as a top-tier, high-margin operation with a clear path to development into a world-class mine and mill,” Uranium Energy CEO Amir Adnani said in a release. “We see significant potential for further value creation as we advance the project through the prefeasibility stage, supported by recent exploration drill results and the discovery of the Roughrider North deposit.”
The study is based on a long-term uranium price of US$85 per lb., and an estimated production of 61.2 million lb. U3O8 over a nine-year mine life, averaging 6.8 million lb. U3O8 per year. The life-of-mine average mill feed grade is 2.36% U3O8, with a forecast recovery rate of 97.5%.
Adnani calls Roughrider “an elite underground development project” that benefits from being near others in the McClean Lake/Rabbit Lake area of the eastern Athabasca Basin, a global hotspot for uranium mining. The region includes operations by Cameco (TSX: CCO; NYSE: CCJ) and French state-owned Orano besides advanced development projects by Denison Mines (TSX: DML; NYSE: DNN) and NexGen Energy (TSX: NXE; NYSE: NXE; ASX: NXG).
Roughrider project
UEC envisions the 6-sq.-km Roughrider as a conventional uranium mine in the busy Athabasca Basin region. The company estimates that there are 20 uranium deposits, four current and historically producing mines, and two uranium mills within 100 km of Roughrider. The closest is Orano’s McClean Lake mill about 13 km to the east.
Roughrider was previously the flagship asset of Hathor Exploration, which made the uranium discovery in 2008 and later was acquired by Rio Tinto for US$550 million. Rio made substantial progress on Roughrider’s pre-development and environmental baseline work.
The US$150 million sale price to UEC was less than a third of what Rio paid and one-sixth of the project’s after-tax NPV calculated in the new study.
Since acquiring the project, UEC has focused on updating its resource estimate. It totals 699,000 indicated tonnes grading 1.81% U3O8 for 27.9 million lb. U3O8, according to the new study. It has 620,000 inferred tonnes grading 2.45% U3O8 for 33.4 million lb. U3O8.
Shares of Uranium Energy were down 3% to US$7.74 apiece by early afternoon Friday in Toronto, dropping the company’s market capitalization to US$3.2 billion. Stocks in some clean energy companies have fallen with the election of Donald Trump this week.
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