Drilling at Energy Fuels’ (TSX: EFR; NYSE: UUUU) underground Pinyon Plain mine in northern Arizona has returned results as high as 20% uranium oxide (U3O8), while the company reported record output last month.
That result, from hole PPCH-034 cut 5.3 metres grading 5.7% U3O8 from 494 metres depth including 1.2 metres at 20.11% U3O8, according to gamma log results that measure radiation, the company reported Thursday. Other highlights include PPCH-029, which returned 2.3 metres at 7.5 U3O8 from 466 metres depth; and PPCH-028 that cut 4.1 metres grading 7.02% U3O8 from 491 metres depth. All results were from the mine’s Juniper zone.
“I’m amazed at these drill results,” Energy Fuels president and CEO Mark Chalmers said in a release about the 49-hole program conducted over 2024-2025. “With nearly 50 years in the uranium industry, I can say that these types of grades and intercepts in a U.S. uranium mine are extremely rare.”
The company plans to include the results in an updated technical report for Pinyon Plain later this year, which could increase the mine’s uranium reserves and resources and lower costs, Chalmers added. Pinyon Plain, one of the newest uranium mines to start production in the United States, is about 330 km north of Phoenix.
Energy Fuels shares dropped 1.7% to $6.16 apiece on Thursday morning in Toronto, for a market capitalization of $1.22 billion. They have traded in a 12-month range of $4.59 to $10.44.
The results come as uranium enjoys a resurgence in the U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Unleashing American Energy” executive order in January directed federal agencies to speed up energy project approvals, including for uranium mining.
April high
Energy Fuels also reported on Thursday that output last month at Pinyon Plain was almost three-quarters the total production of last year.
April output at the mine totaled 4,604 tons of ore, containing about 151,400 lb. grading 1.64% U3O8. That’s about 73% of the 208,000 lb. of U3O8 it produced last year, according to the company’s annual report, which was issued in February.
Production at Pinyon Plain hit its highest monthly level in April since mining began in late 2023, and rates have steadily risen over the past several months, Energy Fuels said. The company didn’t state output totals for January to March.
Last year’s production at Pinyon Plain was from stockpiled alternate feed materials and newly mined ore.
Energy Fuels said it believes Pinyon Plain will mine significantly more uranium from the Main Zone of the deposit compared to what was described in a 2022 pre-feasibility study for the site.
The mine hosts proven and probable reserves of 134,500 tons grading 0.58% U3O8 for 1.6 million lb. U3O8. The Juniper zone itself hosts 37,000 indicated tons grading 0.95% U3O8 for 703,000 lb. U3O8.
Two weeks ago, Energy Fuels reported it had developed technology capable of producing six of the seven rare earths oxides at scale that are subject to China’s export controls. That development was made at its White Mesa mill in Utah, the only fully licensed uranium mill in the U.S.
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