Uranium companies are struggling with the weakness in the uranium market; priced below $20/lb, U3O8 is at levels not seen in well over a decade. But Energy Fuels recently announced two diversification plays that could help insulate it from low uranium prices, and analysts are applauding the news.
Energy Fuels Inc. (EFR:TSX; UUUU:NYSE.MKT) announced the discovery of high-grade copper mineralization at its 100%-owned Canyon mine in Arizona. The company noted, “The Canyon Mine is the highest-grade uranium mine in the U.S., and based on uranium recovery alone, the Company expects production costs from the Canyon Mine to be competitive with the best underground uranium mines globally, including mines in Canada, based on industry-published cost estimates. However, now that extensive high-grade copper mineralization has been discovered within the deposit. . .the Company is now expanding the scope of the evaluation of the Canyon deposit to analyze recovering copper as a byproduct of uranium recovery, which has the potential to make the economics of the Canyon Mine even better.”
Stephen P. Antony, Energy Fuels’ president and CEO, stated, “The preliminary drilling results showing an extensive system of high-grade copper mineralization at the Canyon Mine are very exciting for Energy Fuels. We have long known that similar deposits in northern Arizona contain copper. However, the average grades in the five holes sampled thus far, with a total grade of nearly 9% copper and one intercept hitting copper grades over 31%, has far exceeded expectations based on past historical results at other mines in the region.” Copper and uranium are found together elsewhere: BHT Billiton’s Olympic Dam mine in Australia recovers copper and a uranium byproduct.
Antony also noted, “These are remarkable copper grades that one may only encounter a couple of times in a mining career,” adding, “these results also have …read more