Peninsula Energy (ASX:PEN) field demonstration delayed by six months

• Peninsula Energy’s (PEN) efforts to test operating conditions at its Lance Project in the U.S. have been delayed by six months
• The project started in August 2020 with a 12 to 18 month expected timeframe, but has been pushed back as remaining demonstration patterns take longer than expected to reach recovery pH targets
• Peninsula affirms it will continue to run the programme for the foreseeable future given the valuable data it generates on the low pH process at Lance
• Peninsula Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Wayne Heili described the potential of the information from the project as “invaluable”
• Investors appear to have responded somewhat unfavourably to the announcement as Peninsula Energy shares trade 19 per cent lower at 11.8 cents

Peninsula Energy’s (PEN) efforts to test operating conditions at its Lance uranium Project in the U.S. have been delayed by six months.

Field demonstrations at the company’s flagship and wholly-owned project in the U.S. state of Wyoming began in August last year, following extensive laboratory testing on core samples obtained from the project site.

While Peninsula says one of the demonstration patterns has arrived at the target pH of 2.0 standards units (SU), it is taking “more time than expected” for the two remaining patterns to reach the recovery pH target.

Peninsula advises the two lagging patterns are yielding a recovery pH of approximately 4.0 SU, notwithstanding having sustained the objective flow rates and acid concentrations in the injection stream.

As a result, the explorer expects the field demonstration may now run for 18 to 24 months, six months longer than its initially projected timeframe.

The company will continue to run the field demonstration programme for the foreseeable future, maintaining it generates valuable data on the low-pH process at Lance.

According to Peninsula, the field demonstration has also exhibited a trend toward consuming more acid than was modelled from initial laboratory results and subsequently projected in the 2018 feasibility study. It is unclear how this may affect the project in the future.

Peninsula Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Wayne Heili described the potential of the information from the project as invaluable.

“The decision to advance our capabilities and technical understanding
of low-pH ISR through the operation of a well-designed field demonstration has been rewarded with the collection of a significant body of data,” he commented.

Investors appear to have responded somewhat unfavourably to the announcement as Peninsula Energy shares trade 19 per cent lower at 11.8 cents at 2:26 pm AEDT.