Fission Uranium outlines feasibility study details
Fission Uranium Corp. [FCU-TSX; FCUUF-OTCQX; 2FU-FSE] said Thursday June 10 that it is launching a feasibility study at its 100%-owned Patterson Lake South property in northern Saskatchewan, which hosts the high-grade Triple R uranium deposit.
Fission shares advanced on the news, rising 1.6% to 64 cents on volume of 648,350. Shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of 69 cents and 19 cents.
In September, 2019, the company released results of a pre-feasibility study (PFS) for an underground-only mining scenario at Patterson Lake South.
The company has said the Triple R deposit has the potential to become one of the lowest cost uranium mining operations in the world. The underground PFS highlighted a substantial reduction in capex and time requirements for construction of the Triple R mine due to simplified water control measures for underground mining.
However, it only considered the ROOE and R780E zones. The company has said further work, including additional drilling may provide sufficient data for further inclusion of the R1515W, R840W and R1620E zones into the feasibility study mine plan.
Access to the deposit is envisaged via a decline from land, thus eliminating the need for a system of dykes and slurry walls, dewatering and overburden removal, resulting a reduction of 90% of total mine-related earth movement.
On Thursday the company said the feasibility work will kick off with Phase 1, consisting of extensive data collection using drilling and other field work. Phase 1 will start this month with completion expected by the second quarter of 2022.
Phase 2 will used data collected from Phase 1 to further refine the design of the underground mine, surface infrastructure plans, and tailings management to be incorporated into the feasibility study.
More detailed plans for Phase 2 will be announced in the near future, the company said.
Concurrent with the Phase 1 field work, a 25-hole core drill program targeting the R840W zone will commence by mid-June.
The company previously said it planned to increase the indicated classified resource at Triple R’s R780E zone, and also upgrade to the indicated category the large R840W zone, which is located on land about 500 metres west of Patterson Lake.
The R840W zone is substantially drilled to inferred classification, and therefore is not currently included in the resource used in a pre-feasibility study. The hope is that R840W can be included in the resource model for the feasibility study.
“The commencement of a feasibility study is a major milestone for Fission, and also for the emerging uranium district and its local communities in the Western Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan,” said Fission CEO Ross McElroy.
The 31,039-hectare Patterson Lake Project is accessible by road with the primary access from all-weather Highway 955, which runs north of the former Cluff Lake mine and passes the NexGen Energy Ltd. [NXE-TSX, NYSE] Arrow deposit located 3.0 km east and the UEX Corp. [UEX-TSX; UEXCF-OTC] Areva Shea Creek discoveries located 50 km north.