Uranium Energy expands resources at the Burke Hollow ISR Project, Texas
Uranium Energy Corp. [NYSE-UEC] reported that announce that it has filed a TRS on EDGAR disclosing updated mineral resources for the company’s Texas Hub and Spoke ISR platform with an increase in resources at the Burke Hollow Project, Texas.
Following a successful delineation drilling program since the last resource update on August 12, 2022, a new S-K 1300 technical report summary (the TRS) increases the Burke Hollow Project’s Measured and Indicated (M&I) resources from 2,324,000 lbs U3O8 to 6,155,000 lbs and Inferred resources of 4,883,000 lbs U3O8.
The Burke Hollow in-situ recovery (ISR) project continues to expand with three Production Areas defined to date, and ongoing exploration and delineation drilling along mineralized trends for additional resource growth.
Total Texas Hub and Spoke platform’s disclosed M&I resources are now 12,958,000 lbs, with 7,241,000 tons grading approximately 0.085% U3O8, and Inferred resources are now 9,948,100 lbs, with 4,356,000 tons grading approximately 0.120% U3O8.
This latest S-K 1300 TRS reconfirms UEC’s position as America’s leading ISR uranium company with its South Texas and Wyoming Hub & Spoke platforms having 79,156,000 lbs U3O8 of M&I resources and 25,002,000 lbs of Inferred resources.
As a U.S. domestic and domiciled company, UEC is now reporting all mineral resources in accordance with Item 1302 of Regulation S-K. S-K 1300 was adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to modernize mineral property disclosure requirements for mining registrants and to align U.S. disclosure requirements more closely for mineral properties with current industry and global regulatory standards.
The mineral resource estimates set forth in this TRS are an update to previously reported project resources under the S-K 1300 format; and the project geology is considered amenable to low-cost, environmentally friendly ISR mining methods.
Andy Kurrus, UEC V.P. of Resource Development, Texas, stated: “Since the initial discovery at Burke Hollow, we’ve continued to increase resources with every drilling campaign and update. We have identified several mineralized trends and horizons for potential resource growth and nearly half of the ~20,000-acre Burke Hollow property remains under-explored. Burke Hollow is the largest ISR uranium discovery in the United States in the past decade and will be an exciting satellite project as part of our hub-and-spoke strategy.”
The platform consists of five project areas: the Hobson Central Processing Plant (CPP); and the Burke Hollow, Goliad, Palangana and Salvo projects located in Karnes, Bee, Goliad and Duval Counties, Texas. The Hobson CPP will serve as the “hub” of the platform, with the other project areas serving as satellite facilities, or the ‘spokes’. The Hobson CPP will process all the uranium recovered in each of the other project areas. The Texas Platform is in the South Texas Uranium Province (STUP), which is part of the coastal plain portion of the Gulf of Mexico Basin (GMB).
Mineral rights in our Texas projects are all private (fee) mineral leases. Fee mineral leases are obtained through negotiation with individual owners.
The company’s projects reside in the GMB and extend over much of South Texas. It includes the Texas coastal plain and STUP where UEC’s ISR projects are located.
Uranium mineralization in UEC’s Hub and Spoke Platform projects is typical of Texas roll-front sandstone deposits.
To date, UEC holds data from 9,135 drill holes that have been completed by UEC and previous uranium exploration companies on and nearby the five project areas held by UEC.
Summary capital and operating cost estimates are not included with this TRS, since UEC is updating the results of an Initial Assessment (IA) without economic analysis. Past normal maintenance operations on new construction/development has been required at the Hobson CPP, and a new Radioactive Material License was approved in 2022 that expanded the licensed U3O8 extraction capacity to 4 million lbs annually. The Salvo project has remained in a continuation status since its 2010-2012 drilling campaign. UEC had initiated drilling campaigns at its Palangana, Goliad and Burke Hollow projects in 2010-2015 and 2023, 2019 and 2021-2024, respectively. The Company also activated several wellfields at Palangana to extract uranium from 2010 to 2016.
From 2010 to 2015, UEC drilled 891 holes at Palangana. Most of the drilling occurred in 2010 (391 holes), 2011 (281 holes) and 2012 (186 holes), and the remaining holes were drilled from 2013-2015. The majority of these holes were drilled for delineation purposes and the remainder were drilled and completed as monitor and production wells.
In 2014, UEC conducted a drilling program at its Goliad project for exploration and water wells. 35 holes were drilled and logged for exploration and water supply purposes with a majority of the holes being drilled in PA- 1 and PA-2. The Radioactive Material License was renewed in March 2024 and the Mine Area Permit is in timely renewal.
From 2021 to present, UEC completed installation and the permit submittal of PA-1. Upon completion of PA-1, UEC drilled to upgrade the resources from inferred to measured and indicated to better define the mineralization in PA-1, PA-2, and the newly discovered PA-3. As of April 11, 2024, 714 delineation and exploration holes were drilled, with 44 of these holes completed as monitor wells. This program is ongoing for the purpose of completing additional holes for exploration and delineation of the newly discovered PA-3 and the Southern Graben Exploration Target outlined in previous technical summary report filings.
In 2023, mineralization was discovered to the south of the PA-1 area in a shallower horizon known as the Eastern Lower A Sand Trend, or “PA-3”, contained within the Eastern block of Burke Hollow. This recently discovered trend accounts for much of the resource expansion since the initial 2022 Hub and Spoke technical summary report, adding significant pounds in all resource categories. Current drilling focuses on delineation of this trend and exploration of the Southern Graben Area.
No historical data was used in the Burke Hollow mineral estimate, only data from drilling conducted by UEC from 2012 to the present. In total, 887 new holes were drilled and logged between 2019 and April 11, 2024 to complete this estimate.
The in-place resources were estimated separately for each project area. The Platform contains a measured resource of 3,631,900 lbs and an indicated resource of 9,326,100 lbs of U3O8 in-place. The Platform contains 9,948,100 lbs of inferred mineral resources in-place.
The company has two production-ready ISR hub and spoke platforms located in South Texas and Wyoming. These two production platforms are anchored by fully operational central processing plants and served by seven U.S. ISR uranium projects with all their major permits in place.
Additionally, the company has diversified uranium holdings including one of the largest physical uranium portfolios of North American warehoused U3O8 ; a major equity stake in Uranium Royalty Corp., the only royalty company in the sector; and a Western Hemisphere pipeline of resource stage uranium projects.