Western Uranium & Vanadium plans processing plant build

After more than a year on the hunt, Western Uranium & Vanadium (CSE: WUC; US-OTC: WSTRF) says it plans to build a mineral processing plant in Emery County, central Utah to recover uranium, vanadium and cobalt.

The plant will be built in the Green River Industrial Park, about 265 km southeast of Salt Lake City, on property the company acquired. It will take mineralized material from mines the company owns and from those owned by others and will complement other planned uses of the site, such as hosting a nuclear power plant, oil refinery and an inland port facility, the company said in a news release on Jan. 25.

“It is also an ideal location for a vanadium redox flow battery plant, as substantial amounts of vanadium will be produced from Western’s Facility,” the company said.

In a news release two days earlier, Western’s founder, president and CEO George Glasier called the new plant project “one of the most significant events in the history” of the company.

“The processing facility, when completed, will provide Western with uranium and vanadium to sell into improving markets and thus result in substantial cash flow from operations,” he said.

The plant is expected to be licensed and built for annual production of 2 million lbs. of U₃O₈  and 6 to 8 million lbs. of V₂O₅, with initial production starting in 2026. Western declined to give a ballpark figure on what it thinks it will cost to build the facility, or specify when construction might be finished.

In an email to The Northern Miner, Robert Klein, Western’s chief financial officer, said some of those questions “are topics for our next news releases.”

In the meantime, permitting and site and facility design have begun, the company says.

One of the reasons why it took more than a year to find and acquire the site, Western says, is because the site needs road, power and water infrastructure. It was also important, the company said, to choose a location that had the support of local municipal and county officials.

Western also noted that the decision to incorporate the recovery of cobalt at the facility was driven by requests from “a number of individuals and entities.”

“Within the State of Utah, there are numerous occurrences of cobalt which may be economical to mine, if a processing facility were available,” it stated in the release, adding that “construction of the cobalt circuit at the facility will be dependent on the availability of feed material.”

The company is in the process of reopening its Sunday mine complex in the state of Colorado. The complex in western San Miguel County consists of five mines: Sunday and West Sunday, Carnation, Saint Jude, and the Topaz mine.

“Mine development and ore production have already commenced” at the complex, it says, and “that ore will provide feed material to the facility.” Material will also be sourced from the San Rafael Uranium Project, west of the plant. According to Western, the market for uranium “is in the early stages of a sustained upswing.”