The Nichols Ranch Project is located in the Powder River Basin. The mineralized trends within the Nichols Ranch Project are alteration-reduction trends hosted in the Eocene age channel sands that lie at depths of approximately 300 to 1,100 feet from the surface. Roll front deposits of uranium bearing material are anticipated to occur within these properties. An alteration-reduction trend is a natural chemical boundary trend line in a sandstone aquifer where reduced (non-oxidized) sand is in contact with altered (oxidized) sand. Uranium mineralization may be found along the trend line.

The properties in the Nichols Ranch Project contain alteration-reduction trends hosted in Eocene age channel sands. Alterationreduction trends in the Pumpkin Buttes Mining District are typically composed of multiple, stacked roll front deposits that often contain associated uranium mineralization. A stacked roll front is a type of uranium occurrence found in thick sandstone where a number of mineralization trends are stacked on top of each other. Uranium mineralization within and adjacent to the Nichols Ranch Project are found in the Eocene Wasatch Formation (“Wasatch”). The Wasatch is a fluvial deposit composed of arkosic sandstones that are typically 25% or more feldspar grains and indicates a source rock where chemical weathering was not extreme, and the sediments have not been transported far. A fluvial deposit is a deposit of uranium mineralization found in sandstones that originated from sediments laid down by streams and rivers. The arkosic sandstone is a type of sandstone that contains a high percentage of feldspar grains. The medium grain size and relatively good sorting of this sediment implies water transportation, probably in a meandering river/stream system. The Wasatch Formation is interlaid with sandstones, claystones, siltstones, carbonaceous shale, and thin coal seams that overlie the Paleocene Fort Union Formation, another fluvial sedimentary unit.

The targeted mineralized zones for the Nichols Ranch Wellfield in the A Sand unit are 300 to 700 feet below the surface and occur in two long narrow trends meeting at the nose. The nose is in the northwest corner of the deposit where the two narrow trends meet to form the tip of the geochemical front. The Hank Project’s two targeted mineralized zones in the F Sand unit range from 200 to 600 feet below the ground surface depending on the topography and changes in the formation’s elevation and stratigraphic horizon. The targeted mineralization zone for the Jane Dough Property is the A Sand unit, the same as Nichols Ranch, at depths of 300 to 750 feet below the surface.

The Nichols Ranch Complex previously operated from 2014 to 2019 and is located within uranium-producing regions of central Wyoming.

The production schedule is based on ISR mining of the uranium mineralization at the Nichols Ranch Mining Unit section of the Complex (Nichols Ranch, Jane Dough, and Hank areas). ISR is an injected-solution mining process that reverses the natural processes that originally deposited the uranium in the sandstones. On-site ground water is being fortified with gaseous oxygen and introduced to the zones of uranium mineralization through a pattern of injection wells. The solution dissolves the uranium from the sandstone host.

The uranium-bearing solution is brought back to surface through production wells where the uranium is concentrated at a central processing plant and dried into yellowcake for market.

ISR mining and milling utilizes the five steps:
1. A solution called lixiviant (typically containing water mixed with oxygen and/or hydrogen peroxide, as well as sodium bicarbonate or carbon dioxide) is injected through a series of wells into the mineralized zones to dissolve and to complex the uranium.
2. The lixiviant with uranium in solution is then collected in a series of recovery wells, through which it is pumped to a processing plant, where the uranium is extracted from the solution through an ion-exchange process.
3. Once the uranium has been extracted, the lixiviant is fortified and reused in the wellfield. Typically, 99% of the solution is reused. The remaining percentage is waste which is disposed of in deep injection wells within EPA exempted aquifers.
4. The uranium extract is then further purified, concentrated, and dried to produce a material, which is called "yellowcake" because of its yellowish color.
5. Finally, the yellowcake is packed in 55-gallon drums to be transported to a uranium conversion facility, where it is processed through the stages of the nuclear fuel cycle to produce fuel for use in nuclear power reactors.

For the production schedule the mineralized zones at the Nichols Ranch area, Jane Dough area, and Hank area will be divided into individual production areas where injection and recovery wells will be installed. As is typical with the other IRS mining commercial operations, the wells will be arranged in variations of 5-spot patterns. In some situations, a line-drive pattern or staggered line-drive pattern may be employed. Horizontal and vertical excursion monitor wells are and will be installed at each wellfield as dictated by geologic and hydro-geologic parameters, and as approved by the WDEQ/LQD. The facilities have been and will be constructed according to acceptable engineering practices.

The proposed uranium ISR process involves the dissolution of the water-soluble uranium compound from the mineralized host rock at neutral pH ranges. It consists of two steps:
- First, the uranium is oxidized from the tetravalent to the hexavalent state with oxygen as an oxidant.
- Second, a chemical compound such as a sodium hydrogen carbonate (NaHCO3 ) or sodium bicarbonate is used to aid in complexing the uranium in the solution, if needed. The uranium rich solution (typically 20 mg/L to 250 mg/L with occasional higher or lower excursions) is transferred from the production wells to the processing facility nearby for uranium concentration with ion exchange resin.

The lixiviant for an alkaline ISR uranium process is a dilute carbonate/bicarbonate aqueous solution that is fortified with an oxidizing agent. During the injection of lixiviant, oxygen will be added to oxidize the uranium underground. Carbon dioxide is provided to adjust the pH to avoid calcium carbonate and calcium sulfate precipitation. Additionally, carbon dioxide dissolved in water provides another source of the carbonate/bicarbonate ions. Finally, sodium carbonate/bicarbonate may be used to adjust the carbonate/bicarbonate concentration.

The Nichols Ranch Plant is licensed and designed to have four major solution circuits: 1) the recovery circuit, 2) the elution circuit, 3) the precipitation and filtration circuit, 4) the drying and packaging circuit. The first three solution circuits are constructed and operated from 2014 to 2019. Due to the absence of the on-site drying and packaging circuit, the Project proposes to truck the U3O8 produced on-site to the Mill near Blanding, Utah, for drying and drumming for final delivery to end users. The Mill is approximately 643 road miles from the Complex.

The recovery circuit includes the flow of lixiviant from the wellfield to the sand filters, or directly to the ion exchange (IX) columns, and back to the wellfield. The uranium that is liberated underground is extracted in the ion exchange system of the process plant. The bleed from the circuit is permanently removed from the lixiviant flow to create a "cone of depression" in the wellfield's static water level and en ........