Toro Energy (ASX:TOE) has commissioned a pilot plant design for the Wiluna Uranium Project in Western Australia on the back of its ‘outstanding’ recent Scoping Study results for the Lake Maitland deposit.
The company, which has a market capitalisation of $43.58 million, says the pilot plant will be designed to test the newly developed processing flowsheet for Lake Maitland at closer to ‘operational’ scale.
The design of the pilot plant will include 2 distinct operating stages: the beneficiation pilot plant and the hydrometallurgical pilot plant.
Toro says the design will include the preparation of process design criteria and will result in a detailed mechanical equipment list alongside a series of process and instrumentation diagrams, as well as the plant layout and detailed construction drawings.
Toro has commissioned metallurgical consulting group Strategic Metallurgy to conduct a detailed design of a pilot plant, with Strategic having already been ‘intricately’ involved in every step of the way through the years of research and development of Toro’s new processing flowsheet.
Toro says it is ‘highly’ confident Strategic Metallurgy is best-placed to help the company progress through the next phase of its research and development work on the Wiluna Project.
Commenting on the company’s plans to capitalise on the outcomes of the Lake Maitland Scoping Study released in late-2022, Toro Energy Executive Chairman Richard Homsany says: “The board is pleased to commission on the pilot plant design following on from the outstanding Scoping Study results for the Lake Maitland uranium deposit, which illustrates the quality and global significance of Toro’s uranium assets.
The modest capital and operating costs results from many years of extensive research and development by Toro to optimise the processing flowsheet.
“The modest capital and operating costs results from many years of extensive research and development by Toro to optimise the processing flowsheet”
Lake Maitland represents a significant proportion of the Wiluna Uranium Project’s resources and highlights the transformational effect of the stand-along Lake Maitland operation on the potential economics of the entire Wiluna Uranium Project.
Toro remains very enthusiastic that we are on the precipice of a significant strengthening in uranium price, which can provide potential significantly higher returns than the financial returns published in the Lake Maitland Scoping Study, which assumed a US$70/lb U3O8 price, US$5.67/lb V2O5 price and a US$:A$0.70 exchange rate.
We are also buoyed by the clear opportunity that the potential integration of additional resources from these deposits affords Toro to significantly increase production at a Lake Maitland processing operation and, in particular, extend the processing of high-grade uranium resources well beyond the seventh year of production.”
Toro Energy is an ASX-listed uranium development and exploration company focused on its portfolio of assets located in Western Australia. As of 30 June 2023, the company had $3.2 million cash at hand, according to its latest quarterly report published on 31 July 2023.
Images: Toro Energy
