Namibia has granted Deep Yellow Limited a mining licence for the Tumas Uranium Project in the Erongo region.
This is the second uranium mining licence issued within a week after Bannerman Energy’s Etango-8 licence was announced on 14 December.
Deep Yellow announced Monday that the mines ministry issued licence number 237 to its 100% owned subsidiary, Reptile Uranium Namibia.
The licence 237, valid for 20 years, will enable the project to move into production, establishing Tumas as the 4th uranium mine in Namibia.
Deep Yellow plans to develop Tumas to produce 3.6Mlb of U3O8 per annum, with an anticipated life of over 30 years.
The Tumas Project hosts one of the country’s largest known paleochannel-hosted calcrete uranium deposits, with an indicated mineral resource of 108.5Mlb at 265ppm eU3O8.
Since the initial discovery of uranium mineralisation in the Tumas palaeochannel in 2006 and refocused exploration with new concepts starting in 2016, probable reserves of 67.3Mlb of U3O8 have been defined.
The Re-Costing Study and the uranium market re-assessment resulted in a material increase in the base case (US$75/lb U3O8) NPV8 and IRR to US$570.0M (A$838.2M) and 27.0%, respectively.
Deep Yellow CEO John Borshoff said receiving the mining licence is another key accomplishment in developing the Tumas Uranium Project.
“This ensures Deep Yellow can move forward on its stated development schedule, make a Final Investment Decision in Q3 2024 and establish economic benefits for both Namibia and the Deep Yellow shareholders,” Borshoff said.
An initial Scoping Study on Tumas delivered positive results in January 2020. This was followed by a Pre-Feasibility Study, completed in February 2021, which delivered robust results in line with, and in some cases better than, the Scoping Study.
Completion of the Tumas DFS in February 2023 was the most significant event to date in the history of Deep Yellow.
Deep Yellow also owns the Omahola project, the Nova JV with the Japanese agency JOGMEC, and the Yellow Dune JV.
Together with the Tumas 1, 1 East, Tumas 2 and Tubas deposits, the palaeodrainage contains about 139 million pounds of U3O8 inferred and indicated resources, of which 67.3 million pounds are currently held in a probable ore reserve.
