Uranium Energy is pleased to announce that the Company has received an independent National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report for its Workman Creek Project located in Gila County, Arizona, that reports an inferred mineral resource of 3,222,000 tons containing 5,542,000 lbs. of U3O8 with an average grade of 0.086% U3O8, at a cut-off grade of 0.05%.
The Workman Creek Project consists of 183 unpatented lode mining claims covering 3,620 acres. The Project is located in a remote area of the Dripping Springs Mining District of Gila County, Arizona, about 30 miles north of Miami, Arizona, 85 miles northeast of Phoenix and approximately 180 miles from the Company’s Anderson Project. The current claim configuration represents the Workman Creek North and South projects, areas originally held and developed by Wyoming Minerals Corp (“WMC”), a subsidiary of Westinghouse, in the 1970s and 1980s.
The uranium mineralization in the Dripping Springs Mining District was first noted in 1950, but not thoroughly explored until 1955 following an airborne radiometric survey conducted by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. The survey identified approximately 20 target areas and initiated a staking rush into the Sierra Ancha Mountains of Gila County.
In the 1970s, WMC established a significant acreage position in the area and began a systematic development program. Major work conducted by WMC including the drilling of over 400 exploration and development holes, geological mapping, regional and detailed geochemical studies, petrographic studies, mineralogical paragenetic studies, geophysical surveys and metallurgical studies, all of which culminated in a positive feasibility study prepared by Dravo Engineers in 1980. The Company has access to all of this information about the project area.
Based on favorable economics indicated in the Dravo Engineers feasibility study, detailed designs for open pit and underground mining were developed, coupled with a conventional acid leach, solvent extraction and precipitation process. Metallurgical leaching studies indicated that uranium recovery was in the range of 94%. The work by Dravo Engineers was further supported and complimented by work performed by Mountain States Research and Development, of Tucson, Arizona, and the Colorado School of Mines Research Institute of Golden, Colorado. However, these historical studies pre-date NI 43-101 standards and should not be treated as current. The Company has not performed the necessary work to verify these historical studies and the results should not be relied upon.
The complete Technical Report titled “Technical Report on the Workman Creek Project” dated effective March 2, 2012, as prepared for the Company, is filed on the SEDAR website, at www.sedar.com, and on the Company’s website at www.uraniumenergy.com. The Technical Report is authored by Neil G. McCallum, P.Geol., and Gary H. Giroux, P. Eng., both being qualified persons as defined in NI 43-101. Mr. McCallum is with Dahrouge Geological Consultants Ltd and Mr. Giroux is an independent consulting engineer.
The authors of the Technical Report concluded that, based on geological similarities and other historic mining activity dating back to the 1950s, there is excellent potential for significant uranium mineralization on the other claim blocks which constitute the Workman Creek Project. They further stated that the claim blocks outside of the main resource area have seen limited documented exploration work, and the recommended program is designed to expand results from previous drill testing.
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