Denison Mines (DML.TO, DNN) and Orano Canada have approved a restart of the uranium mining operations at McClean Lake with initial production anticipated to occur in 2025. Denison Mines is a 22.5% owner of the joint venture. The uranium will be mined using the joint ventures SABRE technology, Surface Access Borehole Resource Extraction, and an initial budget of $7M has been earmarked for eight pilot holes to be installed in 2024. This technique focuses on selectively extracting high-grade ores from surface, and this mining method was tested in 2021.
The anticipated output is 800,000 pounds of Uranium (with just under 180,000 pounds attributable to Denison Mines) with an additional 3 million pounds (675,000 pounds attributable to Denison) identified for potential production between 2026 and 2030. While it will be interesting to see the SABRE method in action, the few hundred thousand pounds of uranium per year are negligible compared to Denison’s current US$1.9B market capitalization.
Disclosure: The author has no position in Denison Mines. Please read the disclaimer.
