Overview

Mine Type	In-Situ
Stage	Restarting
Commodities	Uranium
Mining Method	Solution mining
Production Start	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	Flagship Lance ISR Project - One of the largest US uranium projects, with a JORC (2012) Resource of 53.7Mlbs¹ U3O8. The current Lance Project facilities at Ross were constructed in 2015 and operated from 2016 through mid-2019. Current plant capacity of 0.82 Mlbs U3O8 per year loaded on resins, but licensed to produce up to 3.0 Mlbs U3O8 per year. Production and LoM plan developed for steady-state production of 1.8 Mlbs U3O8 per year from Ross and Kendrick areas. Expanded plant construction activities to commence late 2023, following final engineering and procurement work. Wellfield development and construction activities to continue in advance of production restart. Production restart targeted for Q4 2024.

Deposit type

• Sandstone hosted

Summary:

The Project is located on the eastern periphery of the Powder River Basin that comprises mostly Cretaceous–Tertiary sediments.

The uranium deposits present in the Lance Projects are roll front in nature and hosted in 22 stacked mineralized sandstone units separated from different aquifers by impermeable mudstones/siltstones. A review of numerous electric logs indicates the best grades and thicknesses of mineralization are in clean, relatively thick sandstones. Where grades are generally low and thicknesses of mineralized horizons are minimal, the sandstones are interbedded with thin shale and mudstone. Zones of consistent mineralization are characterized by broad widths of clean sandstone bounded on top and bottom by shale beds. The bounding shale horizons are present in all areas where logs were available for review. This configuration is ideal for ISR of uranium.

The primary elements associated with the uranium are molybdenum (Mo), selenium (Se), and vanadium (V). Uranium is generally in the form of uraninite, coffinite, autenite or uranophane; molybdenum as molybdenite; selenium as ferro-selenite; and vanadium as vanadenite or carnotite.

The sandstones that make up the various formations of the Lance uranium deposits were all deposited in a fluvial-marine environment as channel sand or overbank deposits. They are characterised by fining-upward sequences comprising thick, laterally persistent, tabular, sheet-like sandstones.

Uranium mineralisation occurs preferentially in the sand units of the Fox Hills or lower Lance Formations, which were deposited under more reducing conditions. Within the sandstone, uranium distribution is controlled by basinward migration of chemical fronts that represent the interface between reduced and oxidized sandstone.

Host sandstones dip at -1° to -2° towards the west and south west.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Processing

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Production

Operational metrics

Metrics
Annual production capacity	....

Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Dec 11, 2023
.......................	.......................		Dec 11, 2023
.......................	.......................		Dec 11, 2023