RE:RE:No doubt a mine here.Thanks for this. Very informative. NXE looks like it will be a multi-bagger, IMHO (but "let's go FCU" as well!)
leewebbfan54 wrote: Bumping Doug's most recent post. Check out his other posts.
Ocotillo wrote:
I guess the concerns I had expressed to some of you privately about the mineralization being cut off to the southwest by a major north/south fault was unfounded seeing as the A1/A2 and A3 shears are still present. I am still mystified however as to how the uranium got to these depths in the first place since consensus is that the uranium originated in the sandstone and dropped out of solution when it hit graphite in the basement rock. But a good plumbing system is necessary for this to happen. The plumbing system at PLS is relatively simple to figure out but at Arrow it is still a mystery to me. At Eagle Point, the Collins Bay Fault below the mineralization was considered to be the conduit.
Similar to Eagle Point, more ore will likely be found during multiple phases of underground drilling than will be called an M + I resource initially from surface. We had Zone 2 on the books at McArthur River for around 25 million pounds indicated based on surface drilling but ended up ultimately with 250 million pounds proven following underground drilling. Granted, an extreme example so please don't extrapolate here!
I would have no issues with an annual production rate of at least 8 million pounds here and perhaps 10-12 on the upside depending how the underground drilling panned out over the years. Blasthole stoping for much of it and raiseboring for the very high grade cores. The geometry is excellent. Shaft skipping of high grade is not an issue with a few bells and whistles added to get the CNSC on side. So no grinding and pumping of ore as per McArthur River is likely necessary. No ground freezing required per se except for the collar of the shafts through the sand and sandstone (110m or so, not a big deal). Pretty straight forward. Depth only really comes into play for sinking the production/service shaft since it is all relative after that. Once you are down there, it does not really matter how deep you are. Since it is dry basement rock, sinking of this shaft would be much easier than through the 500m of water bearing sandstone at McArthur River or Millennium for instance. A second return air shaft down to perhaps 200- 250 m or so is all that is necessary for ventilation since raiseboring can be used below this horizon to connect up the lower workings. Put a ladderway in the raises for second means of egress from the mine.
So on the mining side, I see no show stoppers here. The milling and tailings disposal strategies will require lots of thought. The CNSC prefers subsurface tailings disposal (ie. in an old open pit. Synergy here with PLS I guess since they will need a substantial quarry for dyke material, so this becomes the tailings disposal pit) All up I would place the capital to build the mine/mill at around $C1.3-1.5B or ultimately around $C7-10 a pound. Reasonable. Some of the firms doing NI 43 101's will likely tell you a lower number but they are rookies trying to please their paymaster. There is no power on that side of the province so a diesel generated power plant is likely needed.