Western Uranium & Vanadium hopes to ride the uranium wave

Western Uranium & Vanadium (CSE: WUC; US-OTC: WSTRF) CEO George Glasier says the company’s Sunday mine complex in Colorado will be in a good position to take advantage of bullish demand forecasts for uranium. 

“A lot of companies have exploration plans but they are ten to 15 years away from production,” Glasier says in an interview. “We are ready for production. We could be producing significant quantities of uranium and vanadium immediately … and that’s probably one of the reasons why the market likes us.”  

The complex, 390 km from Denver, consists of five past-producing underground mines: Sunday, West Sunday, Carnation, Saint Jude and Topaz. 

“The infrastructure is all there,” says Glasier, noting that Union Carbide developed the mines in the 1970s. “If you had to develop the mine[s] today, it would cost at least US$50 million. That’s one of the real advantages of Sunday and makes it unique.” 

Mining at the complex by previous owners has occurred sporadically since the 1980s. The mines last operated under Denison Mines (TSX: DML; HYSE: DNN) in 2009 and 2010. According to Glasier, Denison “had to shut the complex due to the falling price of uranium.”  

Western Uranium acquired the Sunday mine complex in 2014 from Energy Fuels (TSX: EFR), a company where Glasier worked between 2006 and 2011.  

In 2019, Western began collecting samples from the five past-producing mines to identify areas of high-grade ore, but most work stopped due to the global pandemic.  

Work resumed in mid-2021 and Western focused on the GMG ore body — part of the Sunday mine — where it encountered uranium ore while drifting. It decided to start mining at GMG and has stockpiled more than 1,000 tonnes of mineralized material underground. 

“That wasn’t our intention,” says Glasier, “we were focused on developing the mines not mining.”  

The company also plans to continue to explore the other past-producing mines that make up the complex. 

Glasier says he hopes to be “actively mining” in four or five areas at the complex in another two years.  

Based on a technical report filed in 2015, the complex has measured and indicated resources of 203,217 tonnes grading 0.25% U308, 1.49% vanadium oxide (V205) for 1 million lb. U308 and 6.04 million lb. V205. Inferred resources add 264,604 tonnes grading 0.36% U308, 2.16% V205 for 1.9 million lb. U308 and 11.4 million lb. V205.  

Glasier said that he is not keen on updating the resource.  

“We are a mining company that can mine significant amounts of ore without a technical report,” he said. “That is hard for a typical investor to understand. But that is the nature of what we are, we are a production company.”  

The CEO also said he has no intention of spending “millions of dollars” on drilling. 

In the long run, Glasier says he is also open to takeover offers.  

“We want to create value for our shareholders,” he said. “If somebody came along and bought us for the right price, sure.”