Toro Energy (ASX:TOE) has begun an extension study to incorporate material from the Lake Way and Centipede-Millipede uranium deposits into the proposed processing operation at its Lake Maitland Uranium-Vanadium operation.
The $52.59 million market capitalisation company says the study will be completed by mining engineers at SRK Consulting Australasia, which prepared the Scoping Study for Lake Maitland alongside metallurgical and processing engineers at Strategic Metallurgy.
Toro says a ‘stand-out’ growth opportunity identified from the Lake Maitland Scoping Study is that the proposed production schedule does not include any mineral resources from the Lake Way and Centipede-Millipede deposits.
Including these deposits in the study has the potential to increase the project’s mine life, total production and revenue, therefore adding ‘considerable value’ to the entire Wiluna Uranium Project.
Toro notes stage one of the study will include a pit optimisation of both Lake Way and Centipede-Millipede to provide updated pit inventories at both deposits.
These will be used as inputs into a future updated Scoping Study for the entire project that incorporates all of Centipede-Millipede and Lake Way in addition to Lake Maitland.
As it stands, the first 7 years of the proposed Lake Maitland operation are proposed to process high-grade uranium material. Toro says the new study will test whether this ‘high-grade’ operation can extend for well beyond the first 7 years and have a ‘transformational’ effect on the value of the broader Wiluna project.
Speaking on the initiative, Toro Energy Executive Chairman Richard Homsany says: “As strengthening uranium market conditions continue to align with valuable technical and development improvements at the Wiluna Uranium project, the board is delighted to report this initiative to add significant value to Wiluna via the extension of our Lake Maitland uranium-vanadium processing operation.
The quality and valuation of Toro’s uranium assets are expected to enhance and progress rapidly. The uranium resources at Lake Way and Centipede-Millipede are very substantial and naturally need to be evaluated for viability as additional material at any Lake Maitland uranium-vanadium processing operation.
“The quality and valuation of Toro’s uranium assets are expected to enhance and progress rapidly”
Aside from the strong potential to increase production at Lake Maitland, in particular, Toro looks forward to evaluating whether this may extend the processing of high-grade uranium resource well beyond the 7th year of production.
Global uranium markets are strengthening. With Toro’s continuing work streams at Wiluna, Toro is confident that there is significant scope to comprehensively build upon the foundations of the strong Lake Maitland Scoping Study outcomes.
Toro remains committed to demonstrating that its Wiluna Uranium Project is an asset of global significance that can be brought into production when government policy and uranium markets align.”
The company also reports that a pilot plant design is now underway to test a new processing flowsheet for uranium and vanadium products after processing revisions returned ‘very strong’ estimated financial outcomes in the Lake Maitland Scoping Study, excluding Lake Way and Centipede-Millipede.
Toro’s Lake Maitland pit optimisation increased potential production by 8 million pounds of triuranium octoxide (U3O8) and 11.9Mlbs vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), adding about US$625 million of additional product value based on the price assumptions outlined in the Scoping Study.
Toro Energy is a uranium explorer and developer committed to building an energy business with its flagship Wiluna project as the centrepiece.
The company’s Wiluna project comprises the Centipede, Millipede, Lake Maitland, and Lake Way uranium deposits, located about 30km to the south of the town of Wiluna in Western Australia’s northern goldfields.
Toro had $1.119 million cash and cash equivalents at hand as of 30 June 2023. However, it launched a share placement on 11 September to raise $4.5 million.
The funds raised from the placement will be put towards the development of the Lake Maitland project.
Write to Adam Drought at Mining.com.au
Images: Toro Energy
