Plateau Uranium Announces Positive PEA Results for Macusani Plateau Project

Plateau Uranium Inc. (TSXV:PLU) announce results from the Company’s updated Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Macusani Plateau uranium project, located in the Puno Department of southeastern Peru.
As quoted in the press release:

Key Highlights of PEA (at US$50/lb U3O8 life of mine uranium price)

• Cash operating costs to average US$17.28/lb U3O8 over the life of mine (“LOM”), placing it in the lowest quartile of uranium producers in the world using 2015 production figures.
• Initial capital expenditures (“CAPEX“) have been estimated at US$249.7 M plus US$50.1 M contingencies, to construct the mine and a 10.9 M tonne per annum (“tpa”) heap leach process plant using standard, off-the-shelf equipment and technology. Total sustaining capital costs for LOM are estimated at US$43.9 M.
• Net Present Value (“NPV“) at an 8% discount rate of US$852.7 M pre-tax / US$603.1 M post-tax
• Internal Rate of Return (“IRR“) of 47.6% pre-tax / 40.6% post-tax with capital payback estimated at 1.69years pre-tax / 1.76 years post-tax.
• Conservative uranium selling price of US$50/lb U3O8 used, which is well below the US$65-70/lb long-term price consensus forecasted by industry analysts, and utilized by peer comparables of the Company.
• LOM U3O8 production estimated to average 6.09 Mlbs/yr by processing 109.0 Mt at 289 ppm U3O8 over a 10-year LOM, which would rank within the top five largest uranium operations in the world.
• Standard open pit mining approach with a relatively small, higher grade underground operation contemplated with an average LOM stripping ratio of 2:1 (waste to ore).
  Optimized base case includes only 3 of the 5 main mineralized complexes with current mineral resource estimates identified to date at the Macusani Plateau uranium project. This and the Company’s largely un-explored 910 km2 land package leaves substantial upside to further extend the potential resource base.
• High grade scenarios were also considered with both heap leach and tank leach processing options, all with potentially positive economic results.

Plateau Uranium CEO, Ted O’Connor, stated:

Completing the updated PEA is a very important milestone for Plateau Uranium. The new PEA results show the significant potential of the Macusani Plateau uranium district to become a future uranium production centre. Using a currently realistic, albeit conservative US$50/lb U3O8 future price, both the estimated NPV and IRR for the project are excellent.
The low cost potential of the Macusani Plateau uranium project, with estimated production costs similar to some of the best uranium operations in the Athabasca Basin and Kazakhstan, combined with significant estimated annual production levels, and estimated capital costs of less than US$300 million, near significant infrastructure in mining friendly Peru, all highlight the potential strategic nature of our project to supply the growing near-term uranium demand expected within the next 4 years.
The strong PEA results further validate the merits of the Company’s consolidation and organic growth strategy to control all defined uranium resources in Peru. Our plan is to move the Macusani Plateau uranium project further along the path to development by progressing our environmental permitting strategy in Peru, initiating further delineation, expansion and exploration drilling, and following through with additional pre-feasibility metallurgical and engineering study work over the coming year. The work completed on the high-grade heap leach and tank leach scenarios has provided up-front, potentially economic options to consider in the future pre-feasibility work.
We are seeing signs that uranium demand is increasing as nuclear reactors are being built around the world, and economic supply has not increased. We believe that the uranium market is in the early stages of its inevitable long term recovery, and are positioning Plateau Uranium to be ready to capitalize on this anticipated recovery with an incredibly robust project.

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