Vancouver – Denison Mines (DML-T) has defined a uranium resource in Zambia and plans to push through feasibility studies at the open-pittable site by April.
The Mutanga project is now home to 1.9 million measured tonnes grading 0.0481% U3O8, 8.4 million indicated tonnes grading 0.0314% U3O8, and 25.4 million inferred tonnes grading 0.0231% U3O8. Combining all three categories, the project contains 21 million lbs. U3O8.
The 1,893-sq. km Mutanga property, which used to be known as the Kariba uranium project, is in southern Zambia, some 200 km south of the country’s capital, Lusaka.
The resource is based on 45,600 metres of drilling completed on the Mutanga deposit between late 2007 and mid-2008. The effort gave Denison a resource that exceeds the historic estimate, which was not compliant with National Instrument 43-101 regulations, of 13.7 million lbs. U3O8.
Once the resource definition drill program was complete Denison embarked on a 26,000-metre expansion program that soon identified three large new mineralized zones. Mineralization in the new zones is similar to that in the Mutanga deposit and exploration continues.
Denison is now working through engineering studies in preparation for a feasibility study, which it plans to complete by April. The company envisions a low cost, open pit mining operation using alkali leach processing for extraction.
Denison is also exploring its 60%-owned Wheeler River project in the Athabasca Basin. In February the third and fourth holes of the winter drill program returned significant uranium intercepts at the unconformity.
The third hole, hole 258, intersected locally massive pitchblende grading 18.7% U3O8from a depth of 396 metres. The fourth hole, hole 259, was collared 50 metres along strike to the southwest and intersected 4.6 metres grading 12.8% U3O8from 396 metres depth. Hole 260, drilled another 50 metres along strike to the southwest, returned intensely altered rock but it carried only minor uranium grades, such as 0.396% U3O8over 1 metre. Denison thinks this hole may have overshot the mineralized zone by roughly 20 metres.
Wheeler River sits along strike from Cameco’s (CCO-T, CCJ-N) producing McArthur River mine, which taps into the world’s largest high-grade uranium deposit. Last year two holes intersected uranium on lines 600 metres apart. A hole to test the mid-point of the strike did not hit mineralization but it was also thought to have overshot its target by a small amount.
Denison is a 22% partner in the McClean Lakes mill and mines, which are in northern Saskatchewan Along with Areva, the McClean Lakes partners are mining several small, high-grade deposits, sending all the ore to the McClean mill. The same JV-partners also decided to develop the Midwest deposits, which sit near South McMahon lake in northern Saskatchewan. An open pit there is expected to produce some 36 million lbs. U3O8. Construction has currently been postponed.
Denison also owns and operates the White Mesa mill, which is the only conventional uranium mill currently operating in the United States. Located near Blanding, Utah, White Mesa processes ore from all of Denison’s U.S. uranium mines; the company has four developed or partly developed mines along the Arizona Strip, owns the Tony M mine in Utah (currently on care and maintenance), and operates several small mines on the Colorado Plateau.
On news of the Mutanga resource Denison’s share price gained 11c to close at $1.32. The company has a 52-week trading range of 69c to $9.21 and has 226 million shares outstanding.
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