- Aura Energy (AEE) has defined a vanadium JORC-compliant resource of 18.4 million pounds at its Tiris uranium project in Mauritania
- Previously, the project only had a uranium resource of 56 million pounds at a cut-off grade of 100 parts per million
- Aura says including vanadium in the global Tiris resource gives the company a “wonderful opportunity” to explore operating cost reductions
- The company is now undertaking tests to assess the signifiance of vanadium as a by-product to uranium production
- AEE shares are down 5 per cent to trade at 28 cents
Aura Energy (AEE) has defined a vanadium JORC-compliant resource of 18.4 million pounds at its Tiris uranium project in Mauritania, in north-west Africa.
The Tiris project is regarded as a major greenfields uranium discovery in Mauritania which had an existing uranium JORC Resource of 56 million pounds uranium at a cut-off grade of 100 parts per million (ppm).
The resource estimates were carried out by independent resource consultants H&S
Consultants and Oliver Mapeto who have undertaken previous resource estimates at Tiris.
According to Aura Energy Acting CEO Will Goodall, the vanadium resource estimate marks an initial step to further optimise the project.
“The inclusion of vanadium in the resource estimates for Tiris gives Aura a wonderful opportunity to explore further operating cost reductions through addition of vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) as a by-product to uranium,” he said.
Test work on leaching of the uranium-bearing mineral at Tiris showed vanadium is recovered along with uranium.
Aura Energy is undertaking additional testwork to recover leached vanadium to a V2O5 product. This work will aim to demonstrate the vanadium by-product could be produced with minimal additions to the current process circuit at Tiris.
It says the addition of a vanadium product stream is likely to significantly lower the effective
cost of production of uranium oxide.
The company’s goal for this year is to continue transitioning from a uranium explorer to uranium producer in order to capitalise on the growing demand for nuclear power.
AEE shares were down 5 per cent to trade at 28 cents at 2:23 pm AEDT.