Overview
Stage | Permitting |
Mine Type | Open Pit & Underground |
Commodities |
|
Mining Method |
- Truck & Shovel / Loader
- Room-and-pillar
- Cemented rockfill
|
Mine Life | 12 years (as of Jan 1, 2021) |
The Sheep Mountain Project consists of permitted open pit and underground extraction components and a planned processing facility to process extracted mineralized material which has not yet been permitted.
The Company will continue to evaluate its options for processing Sheep Mountain mineralized material, including continuing to pursue permitting for a heap leach facility at the site, or determining whether arrangements can be made to process Sheep Mountain mineralized materials at a third-party processing facility. Submittal of the license application to the WDEQ-LQD for a heap leach processing facility at the site is on hold pending the Company’s evaluation of off-site processing options for this project. The project is currently on standby, pending completion of the evaluation of the processing options for the Sheep Mountain Project and improvement in market conditions. Additional work is subject to any actions the Company may take in response to general market conditions. |
Source:
p. 20
The Sheep Mountain Project (Congo Pit and Sheep Underground) is held by the Company’s (Energy Fuels Inc.) subsidiary Energy Fuels Wyoming Inc.
Contractors
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Summary:
A primary component of the geology for the Sheep Mountain Project is the Battle Spring Formation. Battle Spring is Eocene in age. Prior to deposition of the Battle Spring Formation and subsequent younger Tertiary formations, underlying Paleocene, Cretaceous, and older formations were deformed during the Laramide Orogeny. During the Laramide Orogeny, faults, including the Emigrant Thrust Fault at the northern end of the project area, were active and displaced sediments by over 20,000 feet. Coincident with this mountain building event, Paleocene and older formations were folded in a series of echelon anticlines and synclines, generally trending from southeast to northwest. The Battle Spring Formation was deposited unconformably on an erosional landscape influenced by these pre-depositional features. Initial stream channels transporting clastic sediments from the Granite Mountains formed in the synclinal valleys.
The geologic setting of the Sheep Mountain Project is important in that it controlled uranium mineralization by focusing movement of the groundwaters, which emplaced the uranium into the stream channels, which had developed on the pre-tertiary landscape. The Battle Spring Formation and associated mineralization at the Sheep Mountain Project is bounded to the east by the western flank of the Sheep Mountain Syncline and to the west by the Spring Creek Anticline. To the north the system is cut off by erosion. To the south the Battle Spring continues into the nor ........
Mining Methods
- Truck & Shovel / Loader
- Room-and-pillar
- Cemented rockfill
Summary:
The project consists of two distinct and independent mining areas, the Congo Open Pit and the Sheep Underground, with common processing on mine material via aheap leach recovery facility. The currently planned mine life of the open pit is 12 years with an additional four years allotted for mine closure and reclamation. The currently planned mine life of the underground is 12 years which includes one year for development and 11 years mine production. The heap leach facility is designed to accommodate the mined material from both open pit and underground mine operations over an operating life compatible with the open pit operations.
Congo Open Pit
The current mine design for the Congo Pit includes typical highwall heights in the range of 100 to 400 feet and reaches a maximum depth of 600 feet in localized areas in the southeast pit corner. The open pit design employs similar design parameters and mining equipment configurations to those used successfully in past Wyoming conventional mine operations. Highwall design is based upon the performance of past projects in the Sheep Mountain and Gas Hills districts and includes an average highwall slope of 0.7:1 (horizontal: vertical), which reflects the average of a 10-foot bench width and 50-foot highwall at a 0.5:1 slope.
The host formation is exposed at the surface and dips between 9 and 16 degrees to the southeast. The initial pit construction will create access from the open pit mine area to the mine was ........
Flow Sheet:
Summary:
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Source:
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Projected Production:
Commodity | Units | Avg. Annual | LOM |
Uranium
|
M lbs
| 1.4 | 17 |
All production numbers are expressed as U3O8.
Operational Metrics:
Metrics | |
Ore tonnes mined, LOM
| ...... |
Tonnes processed, LOM
| ...... |
* According to 2021 study.
Reserves at December 31, 2021:
In Situ Mineral Resource are estimated at GT cut-off of 0.10 (2 ft. of 0.05% eU3O8) for open pit and 0.30 (6 ft. of 0.05% eU3O8) for underground.
In Situ Mineral Reserves are estimated at GT cut-off of 0.10 (2 ft. of 0.05% eU3O8) for open pit and 0.45 (6 ft. of 0.075% eU3O8) for underground.
Mineral Resources are reported inclusive of Mineral Reserves.
Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
Probable
|
7,453 k tons
|
U3O8
|
0.123 %
|
18,365 k lbs
|
Indicated
|
11,663 k tons
|
U3O8
|
0.12 %
|
27,935 k lbs
|
Corporate Filings & Presentations:
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