State Approves WA's First Uranium Mine - Toro Energy

Published on Wednesday October 10 2012 (AEST)  

Environmental approval has been granted for what could be Western Australia's first uranium mine. Environment Minister Bill Marmion today announced Toro Energy Limited's proposed uranium mine near Wiluna, in the northern Goldfields had been granted final environmental approval, subject to conditions. Mr Marmion said his decision followed three weeks' consultation with other decision-making authorities following the draft environmental approval. 

"In reaching this agreement I took into account comments made by agencies, including the Department of Environment and Conservation, resulting in even tighter conditions," he said. The new conditions are designed to strengthen protection of stygofauna; fauna that lives in groundwater systems and groundwater-dependent vegetation as well as better address surface water flows, dust management and rehabilitation. "Toro will also be required to research the water requirements of groundwater-dependent vegetation and more closely monitor stygofauna in the three calcrete ecosystems to be partially impacted by the proposal," Mr Marmion said. Toro Energy's Vanessa Guthrie who is the executive general manager of the Wiluna project said the company had seen the conditions and was comfortable Toro could work within them. The project still has a number of hurdles to pass before construction for the project begins. 

Ms Guthrie said the project was still subject to federal government approval which she anticipated would be completed by the end of the year. The mine would have to go through a project financing phase and go before Toro's board before a final decision on going ahead with the mine would be made. "This would be in mid 2013 and we anticipate construction could start at the end of 2013 before production could start in late 2014." Nuclear free campaigner for the Australian Conservation Foundation, Dave Sweeney said there were concerns about the mining of uranium in general as well as the capacity of Toro to manage this project. He said the foundation would join with other concerned parties in an effort to convince the Federal Government not to approve the mine. 

 "There is no transport plan, no adequate water plan and no closure plan," Mr Sweeney said. "How can you sign off on a project if you don't know how to ship the product off? "They've acknowledged they'll be out of water within a decade but have no answer to that. "Our concern is corners will be cut." The mine is expected to produce up to 1200 tonnes of uranium oxide concentrate per year across an anticipated mine life of 10 years. Currently, WA has no operating uranium mines. 

In 2008, the Liberal state government lifted a six-year ban on uranium mining that was imposed by the previous Labor government. The opposition still opposes uranium mining but says it will not stand in the way of any planned mine that has received approvals if the party wins the state election in March. There are no other uranium projects in WA that would be fully environmentally approved by the time of the election. 

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Toro Energys Theseus Project Turns Into Major Uranium Discovery

Published on Sunday August 21 2011

Toro Energy (ASX: TOE) string of high grade results has confirmed the Theseus Prospect in Western Australia to be a large uranium mineralised system covering over 7.5 square kilometres.

To continue to unlock the significance of this discovery, Toro will now ramp up drilling targeting the definition of higher grade uranium zones.

Drilling highlights include:

- 4.46 metres at 837 ppm eU3O8 from 98.11 metres, including 1.54 metres at 1909ppm eU3O8;

- 9.02 metres at 619 ppm eU3O8 from 100.38 metres, including 1.46 metres at 2204ppm eU3O8; and

- 3.54 metres at 378 ppm eU3O8 from 105.63 metres, including 0.44 metres at 1469ppm eU3O8.

An air-core drilling campaign kicked off at the prospect earlier in the month, with 19 of the planned 60 holes having been drilled and gamma logged so far to total depths ranging from 103 metres to 210 metres, passing through a basement interface at roughly 125 metres.

What is so important for the discovery, is that twelve of the nineteen holes drilled so far report uranium intersections with grades above 100ppm eU3O8, and widths greater than 0.5 metres - pointing to an extensive system.

Greg Hall, managing director, added “We are excited and encouraged by the size, extent and grade of uranium mineralisation so far intersected.

"Toro’s systematic approach to defining the location of the higher grade uranium mineralisation in Theseus is key to ensuring the system is well defined before more closely spaced drilling is used to define a resource prepared in accordance with the JORC code.”

Importantly - the minimum extent of the system is now 5 kilometres by 1.5 kilometres, and open in all directions.

Geologically, Theseus is situated within an interpreted northerly trending palaeovalley broadly defined by previous drilling.

The prospect is part of Toro's wholly owned flagship Lake Mackay Project, located 650 kilometres west of Alice Springs but inside the Western Australia border.

Toro is also developing the advanced Wiluna uranium project which is further west in the state and scheduled for first production from late in 2013, pending government approvals.

Potential In-Situ Recovery

Toro has outlined the lithological and mineralogical association at Theseus saying that it is very similar to the 4 Mile and Beverley uranium deposits in South Australia which are currently being developed or are in production.

Both uranium deposits are amenable to In Situ Recovery (ISR) where slightly acidified water is pumped to depths of 150 metres through confined sand layers, extracting and transporting uranium to a surface processing plant.

The company added that similarities can also be drawn to operating ISR mines in the US and Kazakhstan where uranium mineralisation is mined by ISR techniques.

The geological environment and the consistency of the mineralised zones at Theseus, albeit at an early stage, supports the possibility of ISR extraction methods as a potential development scenario - although the development scenarios and economics remain undefined at this time.

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Global X Uranium ETF Fund Holdings Overview

 

New York-based ETF provider, Global X Funds, has added Uranium ETF to its cleantech fund range. The Global X Uranium ETF tracks the performance of the Solactive Global Uranium Index.

The index tracks the performance of the largest and most liquid listed companies globally in the Uranium Mining Industry. Its three largest components are Cameco, Paladin Energy and 

Uranium One, as of Nov. 1, 2010. 

Global X Uranium ETF (URA) began trading November 5, 2010 as the first ETF to track companies involved in uranium mining. Listed below are the 23 listed Uranium plays that make up this newly listed Uranium ETF.
 

(Complete list of 23 holdings).

% of Net                        Company  Name

Assets

	18.10%	CAMECO CORPORATION
	13.44%	URANIUM ONE INC
	11.91%	PALADIN RESOURCES LIMITED
	4.95%	EXTRACT RESOURCES LTD
	4.94%	DENISON MINES CORP
	4.52%	URANIUM ENERGY CORP
	4.49%	KALAHARI MINERALS PLC
	3.92%	HATHOR EXPLORATION LTD
	3.86%	USEC INCORPORATED
	3.69%	ENERGY RESOURCES OF AUST
	3.01%	URANERZ ENERGY CORP
	2.84%	FIRST URANIUM CORP - CAD
	2.81%	FORSYS METALS CORP
	2.31%	MANTRA RESOURCES LTD
	2.24%	URANIUM RESOURCES INC
	2.22%	UEX CORP
	2.19%	GREENLAND MINERALS LTD
	1.98%	MEGA URANIUM LTD
	1.66%	BERKELEY RESOURCES LTD
	1.58%	BANNERMAN RESOURCES LTD
	1.17%	DEEP YELLOW LTD
	1.14%	LARAMIDE RESOURCES
	0.99%	TORO ENERGY LTD

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Toro Energy's Greg Hall Upbeat On Local Role Developing New Uranium Supplies

Published on Friday Sept 17 2010

Adelaide-based uranium miner says Australia will play a key role in meeting a global shortfall in uranium supplies.

With uranium emerging as a worldwide energy solution, Australia will play its part through expanding existing mines and discovering and developing new deposits, Toro Energy Ltd says.

Managing director Greg Hall told the World Nuclear Association in London that while $US3 billion ($A3.2 billion) and been spent globally on uranium exploration since 2003, new discoveries had been limited.

"There have been some new, globally significant discoveries and there will be a few more, somewhere we believe in the order of five new globally significant uranium discoveries are likely between 2003 and 2020, Mr Hall said.

"However, it will be on average between eight to 15 years before any of these opportunities move from discovery to stable production."

While that presented opportunities for Australia, Mr Hall said local producers could miss out on global opportunities unless new projects were brought on through the approval and feasibility process amid the right pricing environment.

With high prices Australia could be producing 7000 tonnes of additional uranium oxide by 2015, rising to an additional 14,000 tonnes by 2022, Mr Hall said.

Toro has just completed the trial mining test pit at its Wiluna project in Western Australia with production expected from 2013

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