First Uranium updates MWS technical report
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2010
TORONTO and JOHANNESBURG, March 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- First Uranium Corporation (TSX:FIU, JSE:FUM) (ISIN:CA33744R1029) ("First Uranium" or the "Company") has updated the technical report for the Mine Waste Solutions tailings recovery operation ("MWS") in South Africa.
The updated technical report was developed as a consequence of the uncertainties and delays precipitated by the withdrawal of the environmental authorization for the MWS tailings storage facility ("TSF") and the resultant financial pressure placed on the Company. On February 25, 2010, the Company announced the reinstatement of the environmental authorization. Also, on March 12, 2010, the Company announced a refinancing package of up to $150 million. The economic model for the updated technical report was used to calculate the peak funding requirements disclosed in regard to the financing discussed above.
The updated economic valuation for MWS yields a net present value ("NPV") of $211 million, at an 8% discount rate, and an internal rate of return ("IRR") of 34.2% based on the following broad assumptions:
- Operations being scaled back from the two currently operating gold
plants to one gold plant at the end of March 2010 with an expected
throughput of 600,000 tonnes per month, which will enable use of the
existing tailings deposition site, MWS 5 dam, until December 2011;
- Construction of the new TSF commencing in November 2010 for
commissioning by May 2011;
- Restart of the second gold plant and the commissioning of the third
gold plant in May 2011 at an expected throughput of 1.83 million
tonnes per month;
- Operation of the uranium plant modules and all three flotation plants
commencing in August 2011; and
- Construction of the pressure leach circuit of the uranium plant by
April 2013, which is expected to increase gold recovery from 58% to
68% and uranium leach efficiency from 75% to 82%.
The updated technical report for MWS has been filed on SEDAR.
Economic and Commodity Price Assumptions
The following tables show the Company's commodity price assumptions for March 2008 (the date of the previous technical report for MWS) and March 2010 (the current assumptions). The March 2010 assumptions are based on an average nominal consensus forecast from equity research analysts, adjusted downward by the US inflation rate for the period covering the construction of the projects.
Table 1: MARCH 2008 ECONOMIC AND COMMODITY PRICE ASSUMPTIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technical report March 2008 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gold (US$/oz) 907 874 797 711 711 711 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Uranium (US$/lb) 92 79 75 50 50 50 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ZAR/US$ 7.36 7.50 7.45 7.57 7.57 7.57 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table 2: MARCH 2010 ECONOMIC AND COMMODITY PRICE ASSUMPTIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technical report March 2010 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gold (US$/oz) 1105 1080 1129 1011 984 820 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Uranium (US$/lb) 42 50 63 63 63 56 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ZAR/US$ 7.57 7.55 8.44 8.52 8.53 9.33 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Revised Project Economics
The following table summarizes the revised mine plan for MWS. More details of the project economics from the financial models upon which the information in Table 3 is based, will be posted to the Company's web site (www.firsturanium.com) in due course.
Table 3: REVISED PROJECT ECONOMICS FOR MWS
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March 2008 March 2010
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Life of mine average co-product operating costs
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Gold operating cost/tonne reclaimed ($/tonne) $2.12 $2.53
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Uranium operating cost/concentrate
tonne ($/tonne) $9.82 $17.25
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Uranium cash costs ($/pound) $22 $33
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Gold cash cost ($/ounce) $347 $427
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Capital expenditures ($ millions) $241 $188
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Average annual life of mine production
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Uranium (pounds) 1,317,000 916,000
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Gold (ounces) 130,000 109,000
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NPV ($ millions) $419 $211
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IRR 75% 34%
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Notes:
1. Co-product costs assume that operating cash costs are split in
proportion to the revenue earned from each product.
2. NPV is calculated using a real discount rate of 8%.
3. Uranium operating cost/concentrate tonne has increased compared to the
March 2008 technical report due to a general increase in operating
costs, mainly reagents, water, power and general administration costs.
4. Uranium operating cost/lb has increased due to the aforementioned
operating cost increase as well as fewer uranium pounds recovered due
to an average of 4% lower resource grade compared to the 2008
technical report, as well as 94% MCF applied to the uranium resource
based on reconciled modifying factors as well as the average pressure
leach theoretical leach recovery being reduced from 90% to 81.75% due
to hybrid pressure leach circuit.
5. Fewer concentrate tonnes get processed as the third uranium module
will not be commissioned resulting in the average life of mine mass
pull being reduced from 13% to 8% when processing 3 streams.
6. Gold operating cost increase is in line with annual RSA inflation rate
in the years 2008 through 2010.
7. The average annual life of mine production reflects the longer mine
life which has been extended from 2023 to 2026.
8. The effective date of the technical report is January 1, 2010.
MWS Water Use License
MWS held a water license (# 23050323), which was valid until October 20, 2008. As required in terms of the National Water Act 1998, MWS submitted an amended Integrated Water Use License ("IWULA") application to the Department of Water and Environment ("DWAE") in January of 2009. The application incorporated all defined 'water uses' associated with the extended activities of MWS as addressed in the EMP. The application submitted was evaluated by the regional office of DWAE with a positive recommendation and forwarded to the national office of DWAE for processing and issuing. Preliminary indications are that the license should be issued in May 2010.
Estimated Mineral Reserves
The differences between the estimated Mineral Reserves declared in March 2008 and the updated declaration are due to the following factors:
1. Tonnage and gold content differences for Buffels 2 dam due to
depletion.
2. Additional tonnage for the Buffels 3 dam due to the updated
allocation of the Reserve between Buffels 3 and Buffels 4 where the
two dams abut.
3. Lower tonnage and gold content on Buffels 4 due to depletion, as well
as the updated allocation of the Reserve between Buffels 3 and
Buffels 4 dams.
4. Conversion of Probable to Proven Reserves for Harties 1 and Harties 2
dams and an updated allocation of the Reserve between these two dams
where they abut.
5. Tonnage differences on Harties 5 and 6 dams due to the updated
allocation of the Reserve between these two dams where they abut.
6. Lower tonnages for Buffels 5 dam as a result of a much more detailed
survey.
7. Increased tonnage for MWS 4 dam as a result of more accurate
perimeter modelling by means of sub-celling in the resource models.
8. Increased tonnage on MWS 5 deposited from the re-mining of the
Buffels 2, Buffels 4, MWS 2 and NKGE dams.
9. The additional gold content on the MWS 5 dam is also attributed to
this additional material that was added to the dam.
10. Gold mine call factor ("MCF") of 106% was applied to all Resources
converting to Reserves other than the Buffels 2 and Buffels 4 dams
where the actual reconciliation to the end of December 2010 was
applied. A tonnage factor of 97% was applied to all Resource tonnage
in the process of converting to Reserves. The MCF applied for uranium
based on historical reconciliation was 94%.
11. The gold content variance for MWS 4 dam is due to the entire dam
having been converted to Reserves in 2010, whereas only the Domain 2
portion of MWS 4 was converted in 2008, with the other portion having
been considered below the pay limit.
Table 4: MWS MARCH 2008 MINERAL RESERVES STATEMENT
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Tonnage Gold Uranium
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Surface Reclaimed Grade Content Grade Content
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Category Dam (Mt) (g/t) (000 ozs) (kg/t) (000 lbs)
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Proven Buffels 2 23.2 0.36 267 0.09 4,608
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Buffels 3 24.9 0.30 280 0.10 5,437
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Buffels 4 14.1 0.37 170 0.10 3,172
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Harties 5 23.9 0.21 163 0.06 3,261
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Harties 6 13.3 0.20 85 0.06 1,850
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Total Proven Mineral
Reserve 99.4 0.30 965 0.08 18,327
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Probable Buffels 5 47.6 0.24 360 0.06 6,616
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Harties 1 74.4 0.26 624 0.06 10,166
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Harties 2 43.8 0.26 369 0.06 5,789
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Harties 7 1.3 0.27 11 0.16 465
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NKGE 1.2 0.50 19 0.18 472
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MWS 4 17.4 0.28 157 0.13 5,119
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MWS 5 40.3 0.31 402 0.09 7,811
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Total Probable Mineral
Reserve 226.0 0.27 1,941 0.07 36,440
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Grand Total 325.4 0.28 2,907 0.08 54,767
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Notes:
1. Mineral Reserves are quoted as fully diluted delivered to plant
estimates.
2. Based on assumptions of a gold price of $711 per ounce, a uranium
price of $49 per pound and ZAR/$ exchange rate of 7.57, which are
long-term forecast figures.
3. A Reserve COG of 0.28g/t gold equivalent was used. Uranium grades were
converted to gold equivalent using a conversion factor of 1 gram per
tonne, which equals 0.503 kilograms per tonne on an extracted metal
basis.
4. Rows and columns may not add exactly due to rounding.
5. The average life of mine gold recovery applied was 68% and 34%
effective recovery for uranium.
Table 5: MWS JANUARY 2010 MINERAL RESERVES STATEMENT
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Tonnage Gold Uranium
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Surface Reclaimed Grade Content Grade Content
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Category Dam (Mt) (g/t) (000 ozs) (kg/t) (000 lbs)
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Proven Buffels 2 10.4 0.41 137 0.08 1,940
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Buffels 3 29.1 0.39 362 0.10 6,171
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Buffels 4 11.6 0.35 131 0.09 2,376
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Harties 1 80.7 0.26 680 0.07 11,600
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Harties 2 32.3 0.21 216 0.07 4,779
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Harties 5 22.2 0.21 153 0.06 3,172
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Harties 6 9.8 0.23 73 0.07 1,455
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Total Proven Mineral
Reserve 196.0 0.28 1,751 0.07 31,494
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Probable Buffels 5 37.7 0.28 335 0.07 5,512
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MWS 4 26.0 0.25 209 0.10 5,554
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MWS 5 60.9 0.30 578 0.09 11,488
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Harties 7 1.3 0.29 12 0.16 439
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NKGE 0.9 0.60 17 0.18 336
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Total Probable Mineral
Reserve 126.8 0.28 1,150 0.08 23,328
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Grand Total 322.8 0.28 2,901 0.08 54,822
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Notes:
1. Mineral Reserves are quoted as fully diluted delivered to plant
estimates.
2. Based on assumptions of a gold price of $820 per ounce, a uranium
price of $56 per pound and ZAR/$ exchange rate of 9.33, which are
long-term forecast figures.
3. A Reserve COG of 0.221g/t to 0.300g/t gold equivalent was used.
Uranium grades were converted to gold equivalent using a conversion
factor of 1 gram per tonne which equals 0.650 kilograms per tonne on
an extracted metal basis.
4. The Mineral Reserves gold ounces exceed the Mineral Resource gold
ounces due to the use of a 106% mine call factor.
5. Rows and columns may not add exactly due to rounding.
6. The average life of mine gold recovery applied was 65.38% and 23.14%
for uranium. Gold recovery achieves steady state from April 2013
onward at 68% when pressure leach incepts.
7. March 2010 Resources have considered depletion from Buffels dam 2,
Buffels dam 4 and NKGE for 2008 and 2009.
For more information, see the Technical Report on the Mine Waste Solutions Tailings Recovery Project, North West Province, South Africa, dated 1 January 2010 and filed on SEDAR on 19 March 2010.
Technical Disclosure
All technical disclosure in this news release relating to the Mine Waste Solutions tailings recovery project, formerly named the Buffelsfontein tailings recovery project, has been prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") by Daan van Heerden, B.Sc. (Min. Eng.), M.Comm. (Bus.Admin), Charles Muller, B.Sc, Hons. (Geol) Pr.Sci.Nat, and Johan Odendaal, B.Sc. (Geol), B.Sc. (Hons) (Min. Econ.), M.Sc. (Min.Eng.), Pr.Sci.Nat. all of Minxcon Pty Ltd. ("Minxcon"), each of whom is a "qualified person" under NI 43-101 and is independent of First Uranium.
Source: PR newswire
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