Uranium Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ: URRE) has completed a new
Technical Report on the mineral resources at its Juan Tafoya Project,
located 45 miles west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The report concluded
that Juan Tafoya has in-place, non-reserve inferred mineralized material
of 4.2 million short tons at an average grade of 0.145% uranium.
Juan Tafoya’s Technical Report adheres to the format of Canadian
National Instrument 43-101, and the mineral resource estimate within the
report is in conformance with the Canadian Institute of Mining,
Metallurgy and Petroleum Definition Standards (Canadian Standards) for
reporting mineral resources and reserves. The report is available on the
Company’s website: www.uraniumresources.com,
under Projects/ New Mexico/ Juan Tafoya.
Christopher M. Jones, President and Chief Executive Officer of URRE,
said, “We are pleased that the Technical Report on Juan Tafoya is ready
for the next stage of infill confirmation drilling for upgrading of the
mineral resources. Of note, this is the second Technical Report we have
completed of our target of four such NI 43-101 Technical Reports on key
projects in New Mexico this year. We expect to deliver reports on the
Roca Honda Project early in the third quarter 2014 and on the Churchrock
Project at year-end 2014. We believe these NI 43-101 Technical Reports
provide the basis for raising the technical and geological confidence in
these projects.”
Located within 15 miles of the Company’s Cebolleta Project, and with
excellent road access, the Juan Tafoya Project is wholly controlled by
URRE and sequenced in the Company’s long-term path to production
planning. The non-reserve mineralized material for Juan Tafoya shown in
Table 1 below was classified as “Inferred Resources” according to the
Canadian Standards and best practice guidelines for estimation of
mineral resources. Investors are cautioned that the requirements and
terminology of NI 43-101 and the Canadian Standards differ significantly
from the requirements and terminology of the US Securities and Exchange
Commission set forth in the SEC’s Industry Guide 7, and that inferred
resources have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and
as to whether they can be mined legally or economically. It cannot be
assumed that all or any part of the inferred resources will ever be
upgraded to a higher resource category. See “Cautionary Note Regarding
References to Resources and Reserves” below.
The Juan Tafoya Project consists of privately owned mineral rights and
extends over an area of approximately 4,211 acres (1,701 hectares),
including one large lease of 4,096 acres (1,655 hectares) from the Juan
Tafoya Land Corporation and additional leases from several private land
owners. The mineral resources are contained in two uranium deposits
situated at depths of 1,900 feet to 2,100 feet. The two deposits are
hosted in sandstones within the Grants Mineral Belt, which holds one of
the largest concentrations of sandstone-hosted uranium deposits in the
world.
The Technical Report noted that the former project operator conducted
extensive metallurgical studies indicating that the Marquez deposit was
amenable to conventional milling methods with a laboratory-scale
recovery rate of uranium of more than 90%. The project site has never
had any mineral mining or processing.
Table 1: In-Situ, Non-Reserve, Inferred Mineral Resources for the
Juan Tafoya Project (100% URRE)
Deposit
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Cutoff Uranium Grade
(%)
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Tons
(short)
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Uranium Grade
(%)
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Marquez
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0.08
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3,513,600
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|
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0.147
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Southwest
|
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0.08
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687,500
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0.138
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Total Combined
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0.08
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4,201,100
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|
|
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0.145
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Footnotes to the above table
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1.
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The quantity and grade of reported inferred resources in this
estimate are uncertain in nature. There has been insufficient
exploration to verify these inferred resources as an indicated or
measured mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration
will result in upgrading them to an indicated or measured mineral
resource category.
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2.
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Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have
demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that all or
any part of the mineral resources estimated will be converted into
mineral reserves.
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3.
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The cut-off grade was ascertained using a price of $50.00 per pound
for uranium, underground mining costs at $60.00 per ton and milling
plus general and administrative costs at $16.50 per ton. Tons were
rounded.
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4.
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The mineral resources are effective as of May 15, 2014.
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The Juan Tafoya Technical Report recommended follow-up work in two
phases:
-
Phase 1: Conduct a confirmation drilling program of approximately
35,000 feet in 16 holes to upgrade the deposit to the Indicted
Resources category and
-
Phase 2: Prepare a Preliminary Economic Assessment including
hydrogeological work, geotechnical analysis, conceptual mining methods
study, and capital and operating costs, based upon the results of the
Phase 1 work program.
This Juan Tafoya Technical Report was prepared by Geoffrey S. Carter, P.
Eng. of Broad Oak Associates, Toronto, as the Independent Qualified
Person.
About Uranium Resources
Uranium Resources, Inc. was incorporated in 1977 to explore, develop and
recover uranium. Uranium Resources controls minerals rights encompassing
approximately 200,000 acres in the prolific Grants Mineral Belt in New
Mexico, which holds one of the largest known concentrations of
sandstone-hosted uranium deposits in the world. The Company has two
licensed processing facilities and properties in Texas, and an NRC
license to recover up to three million pounds of uranium per year using
the in situ recovery (ISR) process at certain properties in New Mexico.
The Company acquired these properties over the past 25 years, along with
an extensive uranium information database of historic drill hole logs,
assay certificates, maps and technical reports for the Western United
States.
Cautionary Statement
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning
of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking
statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are
identified by words such as "expects," "estimates," "projects,"
"anticipates," "believes," "could," and other similar words. All
statements addressing operating performance, events or developments that
the Company expects or anticipates will occur in the future, including
but not limited to statements relating to the resources included in the
Juan Tafoya Technical Report, which consists solely of inferred
resources, the timing, cost and results of any PEA or scoping level
study regarding the Juan Tafoya Project, the timing or occurrence of
production at the Company’s properties, future improvements in the price
of uranium, the completion of technical reports for the Company’s New
Mexico properties, additions of reserves or acquisitions, and the
Company’s mineralized material are forward-looking statements. Because
they are forward-looking, they should be evaluated in light of important
risk factors and uncertainties. These risk factors and uncertainties
include, but are not limited to, the fact that NI 43-101 reports
describe various types “resources” which are not recognized by the SEC;
inferred resources are the lowest standard of resource allowed under NI
43-101 standards and may not qualify as “mineralized material” under SEC
staff positions; “reserves” are defined differently by the SEC and under
NI 43-101 standards; the Company's ability to raise additional capital
in the future; spot price and long-term contract price of uranium; the
outcome of negotiations with the Navajo Nation; the Company's ability to
reach agreements with current royalty holders; operating conditions at
the Company's projects; government and tribal regulation of the uranium
industry and the nuclear power industry; world-wide uranium supply and
demand; maintaining sufficient financial assurance in the form of
sufficiently collateralized surety instruments; unanticipated
geological, processing, regulatory and legal or other problems the
Company may encounter; and other factors which are more fully described
in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form
10-Q, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or
should any of the Company's underlying assumptions prove incorrect,
actual results may vary materially from those currently anticipated. In
addition, undue reliance should not be placed on the Company's
forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company
disclaims any obligation to update or publicly announce any revisions to
any of the forward-looking statements contained in this news release.
Qualified Person
Dean T. “Ted” Wilton, CPG-7659, Chief Geologist and Vice President of
Uranium Resources, is a Qualified Person under Canada National
Instrument 43-101. Mr. Wilton supervised the preparation of the
scientific and technical information regarding this project for this
news release. A description of the key assumptions, parameters and
methods used to estimate the non-reserve mineralized material in
inferred resources and data verification procedures and a discussion of
the extent to which the estimates may be affected by any known
environmental, permitting, legal, and other relevant factors, are
contained in the Juan Tafoya Technical Report, which is available on the
Company’s website.
Cautionary Note Regarding References to Resources and Reserves
Investors are cautioned that the requirements and terminology of NI
43-101 and the CIM Standards differ significantly from the requirements
and terminology of the SEC set forth in the SEC’s Industry Guide 7 (“SEC
Industry Guide 7”). Accordingly, the Company’s disclosures regarding
mineralization may not be comparable to similar information disclosed by
the Company in the reports it files with the SEC. Without limiting the
foregoing, while the terms “mineral resources,” “inferred resources,”
“indicated resources” and “measured mineral resources” are recognized
and required by NI 43-101 and the CIM Standards, they are not recognized
by the SEC and are not permitted to be used in documents filed with the
SEC by companies subject to SEC Industry Guide 7. Mineral resources
which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic
viability, and investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any
part of a mineral resource will ever be converted into reserves.
Further, inferred resources have a great amount of uncertainty as to
their existence and as to whether they can be mined legally or
economically. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of the inferred
resources will ever be upgraded to a higher resource category. Under
Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the
basis of a feasibility study or prefeasibility study, except in rare
cases. The SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization
that does not constitute SEC Industry Guide 7 compliant “reserves” as
in-place tonnage and grade without reference to unit amounts. In
addition, the NI 43-101 and CIM Standards definition of a “reserve”
differs from the definition in SEC Industry Guide 7. In SEC Industry
Guide 7, a mineral reserve is defined as a part of a mineral deposit
which could be economically and legally extracted or produced at the
time the mineral reserve determination is made, and a “final” or
“bankable” feasibility study is required to report reserves, the
three-year historical price (or in certain circumstances, a contract
price) is used in any reserve or cash flow analysis of designated
reserves and the primary environmental analysis or report must be filed
with the appropriate governmental authority. The Company discloses
non-reserve mineralized material that is considered too speculative
geologically to be categorized as reserves under SEC Industry Guide 7.
Estimates of non-reserve mineralized material are subject to further
exploration and development, are subject to many risks and highly
speculative, and may not be converted to future reserves of the Company.
Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of such
non-reserve mineralized material exists, or is economically or legally
extractable. Mineralized material that is not reserves does not have any
demonstrated economic viability.
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