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Uranium Energy announced on Tuesday an increased inferred mineral resource estimate. The news is a boon for the company, which last year curtailed some mining activities to lower expenses.
Uranium Energy (NYSEMKT:UEC) announced on Tuesday that it has upped its inferred uranium resource estimate by a healthy 77 percent following recent drilling work.
The company tabulated information gathered from 526 drill holes and found that the inferred project resource estimate has increased by 2.23 million pounds of U3O8, putting the new inferred resource estimate at 5.12 million pounds with a weighted average grade of 0.09 percent U3O8.
Uranium Energy has exclusive rights to explore, develop and mine for uranium at the Burke Hollow project and has been busy on the property over the course of the past year. It first started drilling in November 2013, with production permitting licenses getting filed in April 2014.
“Burke Hollow is a grass-roots discovery by the UEC team. We are only 526 holes into this Project, and have already developed an impressive resource. Historically, most of the previous ISR projects have drilled double the number of holes before developing a resource like the current Burke Hollow estimate. The geological team is confident that the resource at Burke Hollow will expand further,” said Andy Kurrus, vice president of resource development at the company, in a press release.
The company has also identified three potential areas for future drilling that it believes could add to the overall resource total, added Kurrus.
The property represents a unique opportunity for the company. It’s four times larger than Uranium Energy’s Goliad project and has room to grow. The downside to that is it requires cash to do so. The company reigned in mining activities back in September 2013 as the uranium market sagged and prices dropped. In particular, the company focused its efforts on in-situ recovery of uranium to help offset cash costs at various projects, including Burke Hollow.
“As the third of six projects in the South Texas region, we anticipate Burke Hollow can be easily integrated into our existing operations and provide significant synergies to our Palangana and Goliad Projects. An additional three projects are in the exploration phase, also surrounding our Hobson Processing Plant,” said Amir Adnani, Uranium Energy’s president and CEO.
Now that uranium is trending upwards — having risen roughly 14 percent from this time last month — it could herald a prosperous time for the company.
Securities Disclosure: I, Nick Wells, hold no direct or indirect investment in any of the companies mentioned in this article.
