The state of Wyoming has produced well in excess of 200 million pounds of uranium and Crosshair Exploration & Mining (CXX-T, CXZ-X) believes its flagship Bootheel project will play its part in boosting those numbers over the next decade.
The Vancouver-based junior has completed an initial resource estimate for the property in the Shirley Basin of southern Wyoming demonstrating an indicated resource of 1.09 million pounds of uranium oxide (from 1.44 million tonnes grading 0.038% U3O8) and an inferred resource of 3.25 million pounds (from 4.40 million tonnes grading 0.037% U3O8).
The resource estimate for Bootheel was based on results from 93 holes (50,163 feet) drilled by Crosshair and roughly 1,450 historic drill holes.
Less than 60% of the historical resource was included in the initial estimate and the resource remains open for expansion, the company says.
The project is ventured with Ur-Energy (URE-T, URG-X). Crosshair is earning a 75% interest in the project and anticipates completing its earn-in during this fiscal quarter.
The partners believe Bootheel has in-situ mining potential and is designed for near-term production. With in-situ mining, the uranium is recovered on resin pellets, which are then transported to another, licensed operation where the uranium is recovered.
Typically these kinds of operations have lower capital and potentially lower operating costs, Crosshair notes. ISR techniques are also more environmentally friendly and less capital intensive than conventional mining methods.
Uranium mineralization at Bootheel occurs within several different sandstone beds. The majority of the resources are found in its Sundance Formation.
“When compared to other similar in-situ recovery (ISR) projects within the United States, the 14-foot average thickness of the Sundance Formation is greater than many comparable projects and should provide a significant benefit in reducing well field development costs by requiring fewer wells,” Stewart Wallis, Crosshair’s president, said in a prepared statement.
The next step is additional drilling, permitting and a scoping study.
Crosshair estimated an approximate cut-off grade based on an estimated mining cost of $18 per pound of U3O8 and a US$70 per pound long-term price of uranium. The resultant cut-off grade used for the Sundance resource was 0.015% U3O8.
For the Wind River Formation resource, the cut-off was increased to 0.020% U3O8 to allow for the possibility of lower recoveries in the formation and increased drill density required for the development of the well fields.
In addition to Bootheel, Crosshair has four defined resources at its CMB uranium project in Labrador, Canada. These assets fall outside of Labrador Inuit Lands and are therefore not directly impacted by the Nunatsiavut government’s decision in March 2008 to place a three-year moratorium on uranium mining within their self-governed Labrador Inuit Lands.
At presstime Crosshair was trading at 19¢ per share and has a 52-week trading range of 8.5¢-47.5¢. The Vancouver-based junior has 112.2 million shares outstanding.
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