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Odessa Minerals
Overview
Odessa Minerals (ASX:ODE) is an ASX-listed junior mining and exploration company focusing on uranium exploration in the Gascoyne Region of Western Australia via its three projects— Lyndon Project, Relief Well and Gascoyne East.
Odessa Mineral’s pivot towards uranium and away from lithium is a smart move, especially in the current environment of high uranium prices. Uranium prices have soared to their highest point since 2008, surpassing US$100 per pound. This upward trend is expected to continue due to the ongoing supply and demand imbalance for uranium. With its portfolio of uranium projects, Odessa is strategically positioned to capitalize on these robust market fundamentals.
Odessa Minerals’ projects in the Gascoyne Region of Western Australia totalling >3,000km2
The company’s flagship Lyndon project is immediately adjacent to Paladin Energy’s 15.6 million pounds (Mlbs) U3O8 Carley Bore uranium project. The Lyndon Project has identified highly significant uranium intersections with some rock chip sample assay results showing exceptional grades up to 6,612 parts per millions (ppm) U3O8 at the Baltic Bore and Jailor Bore prospects. Odessa plans to begin drilling at the target areas in 2024.
The other two projects—Relief Well and Gascoyne East—have shown significant potential for uranium. An extensive palaeochannel stretching over 8 kilometers has been verified at Relief Well, offering the potential for uranium mineralization in a roll-front style. Odessa is planning a drilling program to test roll-front uranium mineralization at Relief Well.
The Gascoyne East project is one of the most under-explored areas in the Gascoyne Province. The company has identified multiple gold, copper and uranium targets for the project, and drilling has been planned for 2024.
The company is in the early stages of its operations, making it attractive for investors looking to get exposure to uranium assets in a tier-1 mining region like Gascoyne. The high insider holding, at nearly 28 percent, is an encouraging sign for investors as it aligns management’s interests with those of the shareholders.
Company Highlights
- Odessa Minerals is an ASX-listed, uranium exploration company with a large holding covering over 3,000 sq. km. in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The company has three key projects in the area – Lyndon, Relief Well, Gascoyne East.
- The company focuses on advancing uranium prospects at its flagship project, Lyndon. Lyndon is adjacent to Paladin Energy’s Carley Bore uranium project, which has a resource base of 15.6 Mlbs U3O8.
- Initial review of the Lyndon project has identified highly significant uranium intersections at the Jailor Bore, Baltic Bore and Ben Hur prospects, with some exceptional grades reaching up to 6,600 ppm U3O8.
- The Relief Well Uranium Project has revealed significant palaeochannel-hosted uranium mineralization typically amenable to low-cost recovery. The company will move forward with drill planning and seek approvals to conduct drilling at the Relief Well prospect.
- Uranium prices have surged to their highest level since 2008, exceeding US$100 per pound. This upward trend is anticipated to persist due to the tight supply and demand balance for uranium. Odessa's portfolio of uranium projects is well-positioned to benefit from strong fundamentals.
- The Gascoyne East project has extensive gold, copper and uranium targets that were identified during the recent airborne survey. The company is planning air-core and RC drilling for the project in 2024.
- The Company’s senior leadership team is well-experienced in the mining sector and has significant ownership in the company at nearly 28 percent. This is an encouraging sign for investors as it aligns the management’s interest with that of the shareholders.
Key Projects
Lyndon Project
The Lyndon project tenements total 1,000km2 of highly prospective ground for REE/lithium exploration. The project has also shown signs of significant uranium potential, making the company pivot towards it and aligning its priorities to uranium exploration. The initial fieldwork on the project has yielded impressive results.
Jailor Bore, Baltic Bore and Ben Hur prospects showed significant calcrete-hosted uranium mineralization at the surface. The findings at the Balti Bore and Jailor Bore included 12 rock chips with assays revealing over 1,000 ppm U3O8 and five rock chips with assays showing more than 1,000 ppm V2O5 (vanadium oxide).
Carnotite (uranium) mineralisation within siliceous calcrete at the Jailor Bore prospect in sample XT0938.
Baltic Bore prospect: The Baltic Bore prospect area features several radiometric anomalies linked to calcrete terraces, extending over a strike length of 2.6 km. Baltic yielded a noteworthy 6,612 ppm U3O8 while also uncovering 2,132 ppm V2O5 in sample XT0970. An additional eight samples show rock chip assays exceeding 1,000 ppm U3O8. Historically, little attention has been paid to the Baltic Bore prospects compared to Jailor Bore. However, the assay results at Baltic Bore indicate significant potential for high-grade uranium discovery.
Jailor Bore target: Jailor Bore encompasses more than 2 km of uranium radiometric anomalies along its strike length. Surface mineralization has been observed at this target, with four rock chip assays exceeding 1,000 ppm U3O8, with a maximum of 4,489 ppm U3O8. Additionally, high vanadium levels were found to be associated with uranium mineralization, with rock chip XT0929 showing up to 1,541 ppm V2O5.
Ben Hur, Giant and Red Hill Uranium Targets: The Ben Hur, Giant and Red Hill prospects exhibit calcrete-type uranium mineralization similar to that found at the Baltic Bore and Jailor Bore. Historical exploration reported intersections up to 2 meters @ 411 ppm U3O8 from 4 meters.
Relief Well Project
VTEM survey data has confirmed the presence of a palaeochannel at the Relief Well prospect with a strike length of greater than 8 km that remains open to the south. The palaeochannel-hosted uranium mineralization at the Relief Well prospect is typically amenable to low-cost in-situ leach recovery. Relief Well is situated directly along the strike and serves as an upstream extension of the paleochannel that hosts Paladin Energy’s Carley Bore, which contains a 15.6 Mlbs U3O8 resource. The company will now move forward with drill planning and will seek approvals to conduct drilling at the Relief Well prospect.
Gascoyne East Project
The Gascoyne East Project tenements cover 2,108 sq. km. of exploration licenses. The Gascoyne East project is one of the most under-explored areas of the Gascoyne Province. The company has identified multiple gold, copper and uranium targets for the project, and is planning a two-phase air-core drilling program. Phase 1 air core drilling with hole spacings ranging from 200 meters to 400 meters aims to update the basement geology model and rank targets for the follow-up Phase 2 drill program, which will test for mineralization at depth. Phase 1 drilling is expected to commence in Q3 2024.
Management Team
Zane Lewis – Non-Executive Director
Zane Lewis is the principal and co-founder of SmallCap Corporate, a corporate advisory firm that specializes in providing corporate advice and compliance administration to public companies. Leveraging his extensive financial and corporate experience from previous roles, Lewis brings a wealth of knowledge to the board. Additionally, he holds the title of Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and serves as a non-executive director of Lion Energy (ASX:LIO) and Kairos Minerals (ASX:KAI).
David Lenigas – Executive Director
David Lenigas is a mining engineer holding a Western Australian First Class Mine Managers Certificate. He boasts vast corporate experience, having served as chairman and chief executive officer of numerous leading stock exchanges worldwide, overseeing various business sectors. He has also held senior financial and management roles in publicly listed and private enterprises across Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and Africa.
Lisa Wells – Non-Executive Director
Lisa Wells brings 26 years of experience as an exploration geologist, having worked across various commodities such as diamonds, bulk commodities, gold, and base metals. Previously, she was a senior geologist at United Kimberley Diamonds, overseeing the Phillips Range diamond bulk sampling program at Aries South in Central Kimberley.
Wells has extensive expertise in environmental and permitting approvals, coordinating trial mining operations, conducting feasibility studies, and managing projects across a range of commodities, including diamonds, gold, phosphate and base metals.
Currently, Wells is a non-executive director of Territory Minerals, a gold company with projects in North Queensland. She holds a BAppSc. in Geology from Curtin University.
Robbie Featherby – Company Secretary
Robbie Featherby is a corporate advisor at SmallCap Corporate, a specialized boutique firm offering company secretarial, CFO and transaction management services to both listed and unlisted companies. Additionally, he is the company secretary at Victory Goldfields (ASX:1VG), Cosmos Exploration and Volt Resources.
Nuclear Fuels
Overview
Nuclear Fuels Inc. (CSE:NF|OTCQX:NFUNF) is a uranium exploration company advancing early-stage, district-scale In-Situ Recovery (“ISR”) amenable uranium projects towards production in the United States of America. Leveraging extensive proprietary historical databases and deep industry expertise, Nuclear Fuels is well-positioned in a sector poised for significant and sustained growth on the back of strong government support. Nuclear Fuels has consolidated the Kaycee district in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin under single-company control for the first time since the early 1980s. Currently executing its second drill program at the Kaycee Project, the Company aims to expand on historic resources across a 33-mile trend with over 110 miles of mapped roll-fronts defined by 3,800 drill holes.
The Company’s strategic relationship with enCore Energy Corp., America’s Clean Energy Company™, offers a mutually beneficial “pathway to production,” with enCore owning an ~18% equity interest and retaining the right to back-in to 51% ownership in the flagship Kaycee Project in Wyoming’s prolific Powder River Basin.
The company’s flagship project, Kaycee, is located in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, the backbone of the United States’ domestic uranium production. With existing historic resources of nearly 2.5 million pounds (Mlbs) of uranium, the project has the potential to become a large-scale uranium producer. Eighty-nine drill holes were completed in 2023. Phase 2 of the drill program commenced on April 29, 2024, with an additional 700 permitted drill holes designed to expand the areas drilled in 2023 and define new mineralized zones along trend.
Wyoming is the USA's leading uranium-producing state, home to the largest known uranium ore reserves in the US. Wyoming is also a jurisdiction that supports energy development, being among a handful of US states with an ‘Agreement State’ status, which provides for a “one-window” streamlined permitting program for new uranium projects.
Nuclear Fuel’s Kaycee project is potentially amenable for in-situ recovery (ISR) extraction technology, an environmentally responsible and economically superior uranium extraction process. Over 60 percent of all uranium extractions globally use this technology.
In addition to the Kaycee project, some of the company’s other assets include the Bootheel project in Wyoming (uranium) and the Moonshine project in Arizona (uranium). Through this portfolio of projects, Nuclear Fuels is confident it can contribute to the U.S.’ need to develop a safe, environmentally superior, and reliable source of domestic uranium, thereby reducing foreign supply dependence and ultimately contributing to the global energy transition.
Assets in uranium mining jurisdictions
Some of the most important challenges faced by the world today are climate change and energy security. Nuclear energy can play an important role in addressing these concerns.
Nuclear energy is a clean and carbon-free energy source. It is the largest source of carbon-free electricity in the US, as it generates electricity without harmful pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, or mercury. In addition, nuclear energy has a small land footprint meaning it can produce relatively large amounts of power using small land mass. Typically, a 1,000-MW nuclear plant requires around 1 square mile to operate. In comparison, wind farms require 360 times more land area to produce the same amount of electricity, and solar photovoltaic plants require 75 times more area, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. Nuclear fuel is also extremely energy dense. For perspective, a half-inch-tall uranium pellet creates as much energy as 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas, 120 gallons (about 454.25 L) of oil, or 1 ton of coal. Lastly, the nuclear power industry has a strong safety culture; delivering power safely and efficiently, especially so in comparison to coal-fired power plants.
Given these benefits, the world today is experiencing a nuclear renaissance. Roughly 200 nuclear reactors are currently under construction or planned – an increase of more than 40 percent of the currently operating nuclear fleet. In Japan, 10 reactors have restarted, and 16 additional reactors have applied for restarts. Likewise, the UK plans to build eight new nuclear reactors to increase its energy production. Additionally, the US is heavily focused on nuclear energy, with several nuclear power plants in America currently undergoing the permitting process to restart power generation. Approximately 20 percent of electricity generated in the US comes from nuclear energy sources, according to data from the US Department of Energy. However, about 95 percent of the uranium that fuels America’s nuclear reactors is imported. The continued increase in the price of uranium is fueling the drive to accelerate uranium exploration in the US to boost domestic production.
To produce large amounts of nuclear energy, the US needs domestically produced uranium fuel. Currently, the majority of uranium is imported from foreign producers such as Russia, Kazakhstan and China. To reduce dependence on foreign uranium supply, the US is seeking to strengthen its domestic supply sources. Nuclear Fuels is well positioned to become a leading domestic uranium exploration company with a potential pathway to production with enCore Energy, with the Kaycee Project in Wyoming.
Wyoming is a proven and effective uranium permitting jurisdiction. Its status as an Agreement State ensures permitting and advancing uranium projects are more efficient and streamlined compared to most other states. It is also important to note that most uranium production in Wyoming, especially in the Powder River Basin, involves the ISR extraction method. Wyoming hosts at least 10 ISR operations that have produced more than 45 Mlbs of U3O8.
What is in-situ recovery?
In-situ recovery (ISR) offers a minimally intrusive, eco-friendly and economically competitive approach to mineral extraction. It’s been proven a successful technique for mining uranium, especially from lower-grade deposits that might not warrant conventional open pit or underground mining due to costs. Unlike traditional mining, ISR doesn’t involve open pits, waste dumps or tailings, making it more environmentally friendly. This method also streamlines the permitting, development, and remediation processes. With ISR, uranium is extracted without disturbing the surface, and once the process is complete, the land is restored to its original state and purpose.
Since its development in the 1960s, ISR technology has evolved significantly. Today, it’s a controllable, safe and benign uranium production method that is highly regulated in the US. ISR currently accounts for about 70 percent of global uranium production. Some nations, like Kazakhstan and Australia, still employ strong chemicals like sulfuric acid for extraction. Many companies operating in the US opt for a mix of oxygen and sodium bicarbonate in the local groundwater, which extracts uranium with minimal environmental impact and at a near-neutral pH.
With ISR, uranium extraction is accomplished in liquid form through injection and recovery wells. Oxygen is injected with water and no toxic chemicals are used. Compared to conventional mining, it saves a significant amount of water. The use of this technology leads to minimal surface disruption, no tailings and no waste piles. Land and water revert to the original use category once the extraction is completed.
Company Highlights
- Consolidation of the 33-mile trend of the Kaycee Project in Wyoming’s prolific Powder River Basin.
- Permitted 700 hole drill program underway at the Kaycee Project to expand on historic resources across a 33-mile trend with over 110 miles of mapped roll-fronts defined by 3,800 drill holes.
- Strategic relationship with enCore Energy Corp., America’s Clean Energy Company™, for a pathway to production;
- Leveraging extensive proprietary historical databases to build a long-term pipeline of projects in progressive jurisdictions.
- The company is led by industry experts with extensive experience and credentials in uranium exploration and development, and all aspects of ISR uranium operations.
- In the rising global demand for carbon-free sources of energy production, Nuclear Fuels is well positioned to contribute, through exploration, to a reliable supply of domestic uranium to fuel America’s nuclear energy.
- The US is the world’s largest consumer of nuclear energy, with 20 percent of its electric grid fueled by nuclear energy, yet most of its uranium fuel is imported.
- Uranium prices continue to rise due to consistent and growing uranium demand and constraints on current production capacity.
- enCore Energy is the company’s largest shareholder with an 18.3 percent stake, while management and other insiders hold 6.7 percent, with CEO Greg Huffman holding 3.2% of this.
Key Project
Kaycee Project, Wyoming
The Kaycee project is the company’s flagship asset. It is the largest ISR exploration project in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin (PRB) and covers a 33-mile mineralized trend with over 110 miles of identified roll fronts and over 42 square miles of mineral rights. The project comprises three historically productive sandstone formations - Wasatch, Fort Union and Lance - that are mineralized and potentially amenable to ISR extraction. For the first time since the 1980s, the Kaycee Project is now held by a single company.
With over 3,800 drill holes, historic drilling has confirmed uranium mineralization in all three historically productive sandstones within the PRB, occurring over more than 1,000 feet of vertical section. The majority of the project is not well-explored, with drilling concentrated on approximately 10 percent of the area. The company’s Phase 1 drilling program, conducted in 2023, focused on the Saddle Zone which hosts a historic resource of 519,000 lbs. The initial results from the first 12 holes were encouraging. High-grade mineralization was encountered in five holes with grade thickness (GT) ranging from 0.441 to 0.908. The highest-grade intercept is 3 feet of 0.240 percent e U3O8. Five holes have a GT of >0.3 which is considered suitable for inclusion in a wellfield.
Table of Significant Results
Phase 1 drilling during 2023 successfully confirmed and expanded historic resources returning grades ranging from trace to 6.5 feet at 0.187 percent U3O8 (Gamma log) with a grade thickness of 1.216; Phase 2 of the drill program, commenced on April 29, 2024, to expand historic uranium mineralization at depth and expand mineralization along trend and on other high-priority targets identified with an additional 700 permitted drill holes.
Nuclear Fuels acquired this project from enCore Energy, which, upon Nuclear Fuels establishing a minimum of an NI 43-101 compliant resource of 15 Mlbs U3O8, retains a back-in right for 51 percent of the project by paying 2.5 times the exploration costs and financing the project to production. This provides a clear path to production in case of major discovery at Kaycee.
Other Projects
Bootheel Project, Wyoming
The Bootheel project in Southeast Wyoming consists of roll-front mineralized zones identified in three distinct, stacked sandstone formations. Historic metallurgical testing has indicated better-than-average uranium recovery kinetics and aquifer rehabilitation. A historic NI 43-101 report in 2007, includes an indicated resource of 1.443 million (Mt) @ 0.038 percent U3O8 for 1.089 Mlbs U3O8, and inferred resource of 4.399 Mt @ 0.037 percent U3O8 for 3.249 Mlbs U3O8.
Bobcat Project, Wyoming
This project is located in the Shirley Basin, 25 miles south of Casper, Wyoming in Albany County. The Shirley Basin is a proven and prolific producer of uranium credited with over 84 million pounds produced between 1959 and 1992 from producers including Getty Oil Company, Texaco, Pathfinder Mines Corporation, and Cogema Mining. Moreover, the Shirley Basin is home to the first commercial use of the ISR technique to extract uranium from sandstone-host deposits.
Moonshine Project, Arizona
The Moonshine Springs project is in Mohave County, Arizona. The project comprises approximately 1,000 acres, including 23 owned lode mining claims along with seven lode mining claims and 320 acres of fee land held under lease. This property was earlier explored during the 1970s and 1980s by Exxon Corp and later by Pathfinder.
This project consists of at least three stratigraphic zones, where the sandstone-hosted uranium occurs. The upper two zones lie at an average depth of 170 feet and are considered open pit candidates with the lower zone lying at a depth of 760 feet. The project is amenable to ISR with a historic resource of 2.4 Mlbs grading 0.16
Lisbon Valley Project, Utah
This project is in the Lisbon Valley Uranium District in Southeast Utah and covers approximately 2,211 acres. The project has two claim blocks – LS and JB. The LS claim group is located southeast and adjacent to the Lisbon mine, which was operational between 1972 and 1988, producing approximately 22 Mlbs of U3O8. Historical drilling at LS claim dating back to 2007 reported uranium mineralization amounting to 17.5 feet grading 0.11 percent U3O8.
Management Team
William M. Sheriff – Chairman
William Sheriff is the founder and presently serves as the executive chair of enCore Energy Corp., a leader in ISR uranium production. He was a pioneer in the uranium renaissance as co-founder and chairman of Energy Metals, which was acquired by Uranium One for $1.8 billion and owns the largest domestic uranium resource base in US history.
Gregory Huffman - Chief Executive Officer, President and Director
Gregory Huffman brings more than two decades of mining analysis and equity finance experience with a focus on uranium and other energy-related metals. Huffman's diverse background includes roles in mining specialty sales, fund management, and equity research in the metals and mining sector. In his career, he has been instrumental in leading cross border coordination in global mining financial matters, including his work as a mining analyst focused on uranium from 2004 to 2007. His most recent experience, from 2016 to 2024, was as the global head of mining sales at Canaccord Genuity where he employed his broad range of geological and financial skills to evaluate mining companies exploring, developing, and producing precious, base and energy-related metals, including uranium. Huffman is known for his insightful industry publications, the "Canaccord Genuity High Grade Mining Minute" and "Huffer's High Grade Nuggets."
Eugene Spiering - Director
Eugene Spiering is a registered geologist with more than 30 years of experience and recently served as VP of exploration for Quaterra Resources, where he led the discovery of the only two uranium deposits in Arizona. He also worked on the Kaycee Uranium District in the early 1980s.
David Miller - Director
David Miller is a businessman, professional economic geologist, and a past member of the Wyoming State Legislature. He previously served as the chief executive officer of Strathmore Minerals before its merger with Energy Fuels in 2013. His career has spanned more than 40 years and started with Utah International in the US, which evolved into Orano Group, the French nuclear power conglomerate.
Larry Lahusen - Director
Larry Lahusen holds a BSc in geology from the University of New Mexico (1969) and has been active as an exploration geologist for more than 30 years. He began his career exploring for uranium deposits in the Colorado Plateau region in the US. He has directed and designed exploration programs that resulted in the discovery and subsequent development of the two uranium deposits located in the Lisbon Valley District, Utah.
Richard Munson - Director
Richard Munson has been active in the natural resources business for more than 35 years, starting as a natural resources lawyer specializing in taxation. He moved to the private sector in the mid-80s when he joined the Energy Fuels companies owned by John Adams. Energy Fuels Nuclear became the largest US uranium producer in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1999, Munson and John Adams co-founded ETK, which then owned the Toroparu gold-copper project in Guyana, South Africa. Munson continues to be active in the international resource sector.
Brahm Spilfogel - Director
Brahm Spilfogel is an award-winning financial executive with over 25 years of experience in resource portfolio management. He recently retired from RBC Global Asset Management where he served as managing director and senior portfolio manager, co-managing a number of portfolios including the RBC Global Precious Metal Fund, RBC Global Resources Fund, and the RBC Small and Mid-Cap Resources Fund, with assets exceeding $2 billion. As one of Canada's most well-regarded resource portfolio managers, Spilfogel has actively engaged with corporate boards, offering strategic insights and contributing to governance, safety, and sustainability discussions. His deep expertise in the resources sector extends to financial analysis, mergers and acquisitions, and capital markets.
Monty Sutton – Chief Financial Officer
Monty Sutton brings more than 35 years of experience in public markets, corporate governance, senior administration and accounting and has served on the management teams and boards for many private and publicly traded companies. Sutton has held positions as senior management accountant for MacMillan Bloedel, investment advisor, insurance specialist, corporate development manager and most recently chief financial officer.
Mark Travis – Project Manager
Mark Travis has over 17 years of mineral industry experience in a variety of different settings including both energy and precious metals. He was instrumental in the Strathmore Minerals development of the Gas Hills Wyoming properties during the 2006-2013 uranium cycle. He is the director of the Geological Society of Nevada and the Nevada Mineral Exploration Coalition and is a certified professional geologist through AIPG.
Odessa Minerals Investor Kit
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