Overview

Deposit type

• Sedimentary

Summary:

Uranium mineralization at the Burke Hollow Project Area is typical of Texas roll-front sandstone deposits. All mineralization at the Burke Hollow Project Area occurs in the Goliad Formation. Uranium mineralization occurs along oxidation/reduction interfaces in fluvial channel sands of the Goliad Formation. These deposits consist of multiple mineralized sand horizons which are separated vertically by confining beds of silt, mudstone, and clay.

The uranium-bearing sands of the Goliad Formation at the Burke Hollow Project Area occur beneath a thin layer of Pleistocene-aged Lissie Formation gravels, sands, silts, and clays, which overlie much of the Burke Hollow Project Area. The Goliad Formation uncomfortably underlies the Lissie Formation. Uranium mineralization discovered to date occurs within three of the four sand members of the Goliad, designated as the uppermost Goliad A, Goliad B and the lowermost Goliad D.

The Goliad sand is one of the principal water-bearing formations in South Texas and is capable of yielding moderate to large quantities of water. All of the project areas included in this Burke Hollow Project Area target the Goliad Formation, which is a proven aquifer with characteristics favorable to ISR.

There are two northeast-southwest trending faults at the Burke Hollow Project Area that are likely related to the formation of uranium mineralization. The northwesterly fault is a typical Gulf Coast normal fault, downthrown toward the coast, while the southeastern fault is an antithetic fault downthrown to the northwest, forming a large graben structure. The presence of these faults is likely related to the increased mineralization at the site. The faulting may have served as conduits for reducing waters and natural gas to migrate upward from deeper horizons, as well as altering the groundwater flow system in the uranium-bearing sands.

Mining Methods

• Solution mining

Summary:

ISR mining involves circulating oxidized water through an underground uranium deposit, dissolving the uranium and then pumping the uranium-rich solution to the surface for processing. Oxidizing solution enters the formation through a series of injection wells and is drawn to a series of communicating extraction wells. To create a localized hydrologic cone of depression in each wellfield, more groundwater will be produced than injected. Under this gradient, the natural groundwater movement from the surrounding area is toward the wellfield, providing control of the injection fluid. Over-extraction is adjusted as necessary to maintain a cone of depression which ensures that the injection fluid does not move outside the permitted area.

Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Summary:

The uranium-rich solution is pumped from the ore zone to the surface and circulated through a series of ion exchange columns located at the mine site. The solution flows through resin beds inside an ion exchange column where the uranium bonds to small resin beads. As the solution exits the ion exchange column, it is mostly void of uranium and is re-circulated back to the wellfield and through the ore zone. Once the resin beads are fully-loaded with uranium, they are transported by truck to the Hobson Processing Facility and transferred to a tank for flushing with a brine solution, or elution, which strips the uranium from the resin beads. The stripped resin beads are then transported back to the mine and reused in the ion exchange columns. The uranium solution, now free from the resin, is precipitated out and concentrated into a slurry mixture and fed to a filter press to remove unwanted solids and contaminants. The slurry is then dried in a zero-emissions rotary vacuum dryer, packed in metal drums and shipped out as uranium concentrates, or yellowcake, to ConverDyn for storage and sales.

Processing

• Resin adsorption
• Elution
• In-Situ Recovery (ISR)
• Ion Exchange (IX)

Summary:

The Texas Hub and Spoke ISR Project The Project consists of five project areas: Hobson Central Processing Plant (CPP), Burke Hollow, Goliad, Palangana and Salvo and is located in Karnes, Bee, Goliad and Duval Counties, Texas, USA. The Hobson CPP will process all the mineral mined on each of the other project areas.

The Hobson CPP is located in Karnes County, Texas, northwest of Karnes City, within the GMB and approximately 100 miles northwest of Corpus Christi and 40 miles southeast of San Antonio. This facility represents the ‘hub’ of UEC’s ‘hub-and-spoke’ business model, which comprises a central processing facility supplied with uranium-loaded ion exchange resin from ISR mining at one or more of the project areas. The Hobson CPP was constructed in 1978 when the project area was mined. In 2008, the plant was refurbished. The Hobson CPP has previously processed uranium from the Palangana satellite facility (i.e., the first UEC ‘spoke’) and UEC plans to also process uranium from the Burke Hollow, Goliad and Salvo satellite facilities in the near future.

The CPP consists of a resin transfer circuit for loading/unloading ion exchange resin from tanker trucks, an elution circuit to strip uranium from the ion exchange resin, a circuit to precipitate uranium oxide solids, a yellowcake thickener (if necessary) and a modern, zero-emission vacuum dryer. Other facilities and equipment include an advanced laboratory with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS), office building, yellowcake and 11e.(2) byproduct material storage area, chemical storage tanks and one permitted and constructed waste disposal well. Another waste disposal well is permitted but has not been drilled, because additional disposal capacity is not needed at the current time. The Hobson CPP is permitted for 1 million lbs per year of uranium concentrates (yellowcake or U3O8 ). With an average dryer cycle time of 40 hours and a current dryer loading capacity of 8 to 10 drums, the plant appears capable of yielding up to 1.5 million lbs per year without requiring physical modifications. However, an increase would require a license modification, which UEC is currently pursuing with an amendment to their current license being under review for an increased capacity of up to 4.0 million lbs per year.

Production

Personnel

Job Title	Name	Phone	Email	Profile	Ref. Date
VP, Corporate Development	Bruce Nicholson	(866) 748-1030	bnicholson@uraniumenergy.com		Dec 13, 2023
VP, Health Safety and Environment	Craig Wall				Dec 13, 2023