Laramide proves a point at Westmoreland

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed Laramide Resources on Friday revealed that a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of its Westmoreland uranium project, in Queensland, had estimated that the project could deliver a net present value of $598-million and an internal rate of return of $400-million.

The project was expected to require a capital investment of $268-million to construct a two-million-tonne-a-year mill with a nameplate capacity of four-million pounds a year of uranium oxide.

Over the 13-year life of the operation, the Westmoreland project would have a total sustaining capital cost of $58-million, while operating costs over the same period had been estimated at $23.20/lb.

“The PEA on Westmoreland demonstrates the project to be one of the best in Australia with attractive economics. The PEA and the Churchrock acquisition reiterates Laramide’s strategy of growing a portfolio of lower technical risk, low-cost uranium projects in stable political environments,” said Laramide CEO and president Marc Henderson.

COO Bryn Jones said on Friday that the PEA has highlighted multiple opportunities to further improve the project through process optimisation and additional resource drilling, which would be investigated as the project moved towards a prefeasibility study.