Processing plant for U-pgrade tech
Full commercialisation of U-pgrade technology planned as it sells processing prowess to the rest of the world.
Marenica is making steady progress on its U-pgrade processing technology as it prepares for the commercialisation of its trademarked technology.
Marenica spokesperson Bo Brieders updated Namibian Sun on his company's prospects as it plans to roll out the technology.
“The U-pgrade process technology has been developed at bench scale. The next stage will be to prove the process in a continuous pilot plant and then full-scale commercialisation,” he said.
“We are very pleased with the interest shown in our technology by third party resource owners. We currently have formal arrangements with three project owners and/or developers and we are in discussions with several others which we hope to formalise in the coming months. The prospective applications of U-pgrade currently are spread across four continents and vary from exploration projects to large existing mines.”
On prospects he said: “The purpose of the scoping study is to determine a price level for uranium that will support a viable Marenica mine. We are confident that this price will be competitive with other projects that are waiting for a recovery in the price. Of course we will be targeting an incentive price below US$60 per pound as we believe a long term price above that level is required to keep the market in balance.
“It is a very difficult and futile process to predict future prices with any certainty. As mentioned above, we absolutely agree with the industry consensus that prices will need to correct to ensure the growing fleet of nuclear power plants will have sufficient fuel in the future.
“Marenica continues to prepare for this upward correction in the price of uranium by developing its own Marenica project and ensuring that its technology is implemented in as many suitable projects as possible. When prices do increase in the future we expect that Marenica will be in a strong position to benefit.”
Marenica last week said that the U-pgrade processing technology had the potential to halve operating and capital costs.
“The revised scoping study is expected to be completed within three months, and will create a platform to consider a more detailed feasibility study later in 2017. External consultants DRA and Orelogy have been engaged to complete the work,” the prospective uranium miner said in a statement.
Although the low grade of the deposit would normally make development challenging in all but the more optimistic uranium price scenarios, the U-pgrade technology is capable of concentrating the ore by a factor of 50 times to materially improve the economics of the project according to Marenica estimates.
The company also intends to channel the expertise within its technical steering committee to revisit all parts of the mining operation to identify further performance and cost improvements.
“By applying this technology and technical expertise through the revised scoping study it is hoped to confirm that the Marenica project, with U-pgrade, is viable in US$65 to US$75 per pound of uranium price range and therefore competitive with the best of new uranium projects worldwide,” the company said.
OGONE TLHAGE
Marenica spokesperson Bo Brieders updated Namibian Sun on his company's prospects as it plans to roll out the technology.
“The U-pgrade process technology has been developed at bench scale. The next stage will be to prove the process in a continuous pilot plant and then full-scale commercialisation,” he said.
“We are very pleased with the interest shown in our technology by third party resource owners. We currently have formal arrangements with three project owners and/or developers and we are in discussions with several others which we hope to formalise in the coming months. The prospective applications of U-pgrade currently are spread across four continents and vary from exploration projects to large existing mines.”
On prospects he said: “The purpose of the scoping study is to determine a price level for uranium that will support a viable Marenica mine. We are confident that this price will be competitive with other projects that are waiting for a recovery in the price. Of course we will be targeting an incentive price below US$60 per pound as we believe a long term price above that level is required to keep the market in balance.
“It is a very difficult and futile process to predict future prices with any certainty. As mentioned above, we absolutely agree with the industry consensus that prices will need to correct to ensure the growing fleet of nuclear power plants will have sufficient fuel in the future.
“Marenica continues to prepare for this upward correction in the price of uranium by developing its own Marenica project and ensuring that its technology is implemented in as many suitable projects as possible. When prices do increase in the future we expect that Marenica will be in a strong position to benefit.”
Marenica last week said that the U-pgrade processing technology had the potential to halve operating and capital costs.
“The revised scoping study is expected to be completed within three months, and will create a platform to consider a more detailed feasibility study later in 2017. External consultants DRA and Orelogy have been engaged to complete the work,” the prospective uranium miner said in a statement.
Although the low grade of the deposit would normally make development challenging in all but the more optimistic uranium price scenarios, the U-pgrade technology is capable of concentrating the ore by a factor of 50 times to materially improve the economics of the project according to Marenica estimates.
The company also intends to channel the expertise within its technical steering committee to revisit all parts of the mining operation to identify further performance and cost improvements.
“By applying this technology and technical expertise through the revised scoping study it is hoped to confirm that the Marenica project, with U-pgrade, is viable in US$65 to US$75 per pound of uranium price range and therefore competitive with the best of new uranium projects worldwide,” the company said.
OGONE TLHAGE
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