Energy Fuels Inc (TSE:EFR, NYSE:UUUU) has marked a major milestone and moved its Alta Mesa uranium project in Texas one step further towards resuming production, it told investors.
Alta Mesa is a fully permitted and constructed ISR (solution mining) uranium project in the south of the state, currently on standby status ready to resume operations.
Energy revealed that last month, it had received a notice from the Texas commission on environmental quality (TCEQ), which confirmed that it had achieved final groundwater restoration at production area 1 (PAA1).
In simple terms, it means the firm has restored groundwater at the site, following uranium mining.
This is one of the most important environmental compliance milestones that every US in situ recovery (ISR) facility must complete following production, it added.
"We are extremely proud to receive government confirmation of final restoration of the wellfield at Alta Mesa," said Mark S Chalmers, president and chief executive at Energy Fuels.
"Energy Fuels and the rest of the U.S. uranium industry operate under the highest health, safety and environmental standards in the world, including state-of-the-art protection of groundwater and drinking water."
Alta Mesa (including PAA1) was in production from 2005 until 2012 and generated 4.6mln pounds of uranium - enough to provide clean, carbon-free electricity from an average-sized nuclear reactor for around eight years.
It includes a licensed processing plant with a total annual capacity to produce 1.5mln pounds of U3O8 (triuranium octoxide) per year.
It could resume operations within around 12 months of a production decision, by completing minor facility improvements and installing new wellfields.
Alta Mesa holds an NI 43-101 total of 1.6mln tons of measured and indicated resources at an average grade of 0.111% U3O8 (uranium) containing 3.6mln pounds, along with 7mln tons of inferred with an average grade of 0.121% U3O8 containing 16.8 million pounds of uranium.
Exploration targets include 2.6mln tons of mineralized material with an average grade that could range from between 0.077% to 0.123% U3O8.
In improved market conditions, Energy Fuels wants to resume exploration to expand resources and upgrade existing resources into higher categories.
Energy Fuels holds three of America's key uranium production centres, the White Mesa mill in Utah, the Nichols Ranch processing facility in Wyoming and Alta Mesa in Texas.
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