Blue Sky Uranium Corp. (TSXV: BSK | FSE: MAL2 | OTC: BKUCF) has announced the results of a new PEA for its Ivana uranium-vanadium deposit at the company’s 100% owned Amarillo Grande Project in Rio Negro Province, Argentina.
The updated PEA incorporates a new mineral resource estimate, with approximately 80% of the resources now in the indicated category. The PEA demonstrates robust economics from a surficial mining operation, predicting 11 years of uranium and vanadium production.
PEA highlights:
- After-tax NPV 8%: US$227.7M
- After-tax IRR: 38.9%
- After-tax payback period: 1.9 years
- Pre-production capital cost: US$159.7M, includes US$35.4M contingency
- Life of mine (LOM) sustaining capital cost: US$27.3M, includes US$5.4M contingency
- Average LOM total cash cost net of credits: US$23.29/lb U3O8
- Average LOM all-in sustaining Costs (AISC) net of credits: US$24.95/lb U3O8
PEA key assumptions & inputs:
- Uranium price: US$75/lb U3O8
- Vanadium price US$7.5/lb V2O5
- Years of construction: Two
- Years of production: 11
- Strip Ratio: 1.5:1 (waste/ore)
- Dilution: 3%
- Average mining rate (waste + mill feed): 5.10Mtpa
- Processing throughput: 2.17Mtpa
- Process plant recoveries (Net), Uranium: 84.6%
- Process plant recoveries (Net), Vanadium: 52.5%
- Average annual production (LOM): 1.5Mlbpa U3O8
- LOM uranium production: 16.5Mlbpa U3O8
Nikolaos Cacos, Blue Sky president and CEO, stated, “The PEA reaffirms that the Ivana deposit is a leading low-cost uranium-vanadium project. We believe that this resurgent uranium market has a strong long-term outlook and we are therefore preparing to complete a prefeasibility study for Ivana as soon as possible. We will also continue our on-going exploration work to discover and delineate new uranium and vanadium resources throughout the remaining highly prospective district-scale Amarillo Grande project.”
Additional detailed processing studies are underway to further de-risk and enhance the economics for development of Blue Sky’s Ivana deposit. This technical work will be incorporated into the programme to support a PFS which the company is preparing to commence in the coming months.
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