During March 2015, Australian and Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) listed A-Cap Resources Limited continued with feasibility work as it gears towards submitting a mining license application for its flagship Letlhakane Uranium Project in Botswana, says Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Paul Thomson.
Making the announcement during its quarterly report on April 30, Thomson said finalization of the process modeling and four meter column leach test work at ANSTO labs in New South Wales (NSW), Australia has ensured that leachability, acid consumption and recoveries were all in line with expectations. The process design has also been finalized which defines the heap leach durations, optimal acid concentrations and uranium kinetics.
“A series of mining optimizations are currently underway to provide data to develop a mining schedule for the mining license application.
A final schedule is expected in late May, which will utilize updated acid consumption and process parameters that are being finalized.
The Environmental Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) is nearing completion and will be submitted in May. A series of briefings with key governmental departments to review the ESIA aspects prior to submission were conducted in March,” said Thomson.
He added that A Cap is well in advance of its targeted submission date and is now engaged in positive discussions with Botswana’s Department of Mines to seek clarification on some of the requirements of the application.
Management had identified areas where the company can materially improve aspects of its feasibility studies, which still requires some additional time to finalize, said Thomson.
The Department of Mines has recommended that A-Cap apply for an extension of license to allow the necessary time to complete this work. However A-Cap’s objective remains to submit our application as soon as possible, during 2015: Q2.
The Letlhakane Uranium Project is one of the world’s largest undeveloped Uranium Deposits currently, standing at a 300ppm U?O? cut-off. The updated Global Mineral Resource, reported in compliance with the JORC code, currently stands at 662 million tonnes at 211ppm U?O? for a contained 308 Mlbs of U?O? (100ppm cut-off). Importantly, within the Letlhakane Resource, a significant higher-grade component 662 million tonnes is located in the safe and stable jurisdiction of Botswana. The Project lies adjacent to Botswana’s main North-South infrastructure corridor that includes a sealed all weather highway, railway line and the national power grid, all of which make significant contributions to keeping the capital cost of future developments low.
