Laramide wins development licence for uranium project

Uranium explorer Laramide Resources’ (TSX, ASX: LAM; US-OTC: LMRXF) subsidiary Tackle Resources has been been granted a mineral development licence (MDL) for its Westmoreland project in northwestern Queensland, Australia.

The licence approval could pave the way for Laramide to achieve permitting for Westmoreland, as well as feasibility studies and metallurgical testing needed to support a future mining lease application. The MDL covers all of Westmoreland’s deposit areas including Redtree, Huarabagoo, Junnagunna and Long Pocket.

“The MDL confirms the resource is economically significant, acknowledging the project’s development potential, and provides mineral tenure security to Laramide,” SCP Resource Finance analyst Justin Chan said in a note.

The licence also shows the project can support long-term development, Laramide President and CEO Marc Henderson said in a release.  

“Laramide is excited for the opportunity to expedite further evaluation of the asset; we believe this asset can play a material role in providing security of supply for western nuclear utilities as they confront the now widely acknowledged structural supply deficit of uranium that extends well into the 2030s,” Henderson said.

The licence approval comes almost six months after Laramide released a resource update for Westmoreland that boosted indicated tonnage by 34% and inferred tonnage by 11% over a previous resource from 2009. Indicated resources now amount to 27.8 million tonnes grading 770 parts per million (ppm) for 48.1 million contained lb. uranium oxide (U₃O₈). Inferred tonnage totals 11.8 million tonnes at 680 ppm for 17.7 million contained lb. U₃O₈.

Shares in Laramide gained 1.6% to 62¢ apiece on Thursday morning in Toronto, for a market value of $163.3 million. The stock has traded in a 12-month range of 41¢ to 83¢.

Policy currents

Permitting and a formal mining lease application would be the next steps towards the advancement of Westmoreland, Laramide said – though the Queensland government doesn’t allow uranium mining, along with most other Australian states. Nuclear energy is also banned nationwide.

Laramide also holds the Murphy uranium project in the neighbouring Northern Territory, where uranium mining is allowed.

But an administrative change in Queensland’s policy might lead the state government’s mines department to allow a lease application for a primary uranium mine, Laramide said. The company’s reasoning considers that the current policy was written by the previous Labor government, which was unseated in last October’s state election when the Liberal National Party (LNP) was elected.

In his note, Chan concurs, saying the LNP’s rise to power represents “a positive development, as it increases the likelihood of overturning the current policy against granting uranium mining leases. Permitting aside, Westmoreland would be one of the obvious next mines in Australia.”

However, the LNP under Premier David Crisafulli has yet to indicate it will change the uranium policy. In June last year, he said such changes were up to the federal government and weren’t on his agenda.

The MDL was granted after Laramide registered an Indigenous land use agreement with the Gangalidda and Garawa Native Title Aboriginal Corporation, under which the parties consented to the MDL.