Aura Energy Limited Tiris Feasibility Study Update

 
TIDMAURA 
 
26 APRIL 2017 
 
                              AURA ENERGY LIMITED 
 
                           ("Aura" or the "Company") 
 
            TIRIS DEFINITIVE FEASIBILITY STUDY PROGRESSING STRONGLY 
 
                       MINING LEASE APPLICATION UNDERWAY 
 
                      KEY STUDY COMPONENTS ADVANCING WELL 
 
Aura Energy Limited (AEE; ASX, AURA; AIM) is pleased to advise that the various 
elements of the Tiris Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS") continue to progress 
strongly, with activity in all the principal areas of the study. 
 
Importantly Aura will shortly complete its submission for the Mining Lease 
Application for all Mineral Resources associated with the Tiris Uranium 
Project, with award of this Mining Lease a key project milestone. 
 
Commenting on the Tiris DFS progress, Peter Reeve, Aura Energy's Executive 
Chairman said "The considerable progress of Aura's Tiris Uranium Project DFS is 
largely thanks to a very professional group of technical people and is made 
easier by natural positive attributes the project carries. The studies continue 
to highlight that Tiris is a very achievable low capital cost, low operating 
cost project, which, subject to financing, could be coming into production 
possibly well timed for a rising uranium price." 
 
The DFS for the Tiris Uranium Project in Mauritania recommenced in late 2016 
following a successful funding and listing of the company on the London AIM 
market. The critical areas of the Tiris project study have been; 
 
  * The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) 
  * Preparation for the Mining Lease Application 
  * Resource validation mainly on Hippolyte 
  * Resource evaluation for the Resource upgrade to Measured and Indicated 
    category 
  * Detailed planning for the metallurgical test work 
  * Water Study including geophysics, reconnaissance and drilling of targets 
  * Negotiation of the Tiris Shareholders Agreement - 10% Government interest 
 
The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment ("ESIA") has been a major area 
of work and its main component parts have been; 
 
  * Scoping Report and Terms of Reference for the ESIA 
  * Review of Technical Studies 
  * Air quality, noise and vibration study 
  * Surface water and groundwater study 
  * Soils and geomorphology study 
  * Waste rock and tailings geochemical assessment 
  * Ecology and biodiversity study - Flora and Fauna 
  * Socio-economic study 
  * Archaeology and cultural heritage study 
  * Transportation route study 
  * Health impact assessment 
  * Management Plans 
  * Environmental and Social Monitoring and Management Plan (ESMMP) 
  * Rehabilitation and Conceptual Mine Closure Plan (RCMCP) 
  * Radiation Management Plan (RMP) 
  * Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP) 
  * Impact Assessment 
  * Community and Government consultation 
  * Assessment of Project alternatives 
  * Impact assessment 
  * Cumulative impact assessment 
 
Much of this work is now complete with no major issues identified. An important 
intermediate step was the acceptance by the Government and associated 
Environmental Departments of Aura's EISA Terms of Reference. Public 
Consultation Meetings are to be held in early May for completion of the 
process. 
 
The Mining Lease Application for all the key project areas is due to be 
submitted in the coming weeks and all materials are in the process of being 
finalised for this documentation. 
 
As highlighted in a market release on the 19th April (Strong Hippolyte South 
Uranium Survey) Aura has conducted important Hippolyte Resource Validation work 
and enabled greater understanding of the mineralisation.  This is a key step 
towards the upgrade of the Tiris Resource. 
 
The process of drilling, sampling and downhole gamma logging the Hippolyte 
mineralisation to upgrade the Mineral Resource to the Measured and Indicated 
category is expected to commence in the next 2 weeks, with the sourcing of a 
specialist rig for triple tube drilling finally achieved. This will also 
involve an additional series of disequilibrium measurements across the orebody. 
 
Disequilibrium is an imbalance between the uranium content and the 
radioactivity emitted by a given volume of mineralized rock. This imbalance is 
caused by either differential mobilization of the more soluble uranium from the 
deposition site, relative to its daughter isotopes, or by a lack of time for 
the accumulation of the daughter isotopes to reach a state of equilibrium after 
the uranium has been deposited. Hence in a geologically young environment, a 
deficiency of daughters relative to uranium will cause an underestimation of 
uranium content based on radiometric methods. This will be an important factor 
in the final Mineral Resource estimate for Tiris. 
 
As a prudent cost/capital efficiency measure Aura will progressively convert 
the Tiris Resource to the Measured and Indicated category with an initial 
target for approximately 5 years of production. This will be sufficient for the 
DFS and the associated financial study. During operation, using cashflow it is 
envisaged the remainder of the Mineral Resource will be converted to the 
Measured and Indicated category. 
 
The Metallurgical Test Work program will commence in June 2017 when sufficient 
material has been generated from the planned drill campaign. The program which 
will be conducted principally by ANSTO Laboratories and will focus on the 
various mineralised domains to further assess; 
 
 1. Beneficiation response 
 2. Leaching response 
 3. Solid liquid separation and 
 4. Impurity issues, including effect of recirculating load on metal recovery. 
 
This test work is a critical path item and is targeted for completion in 
January 2018; however, it is expected to generate sufficient information to 
allow the majority of engineering to be complete in 2017. 
 
An extensive Tiris Project Water Study has been underway for over 3 months 
including a program of water geophysics focussing principally on the basal 
sedimentary units of the Taoudeni Basin to the south of the Tiris project area. 
These basal units are known to host substantial water supplies elsewhere in the 
region. A few favourable sites on Reguibat Shield rocks, closer to the project 
site will also be tested in this program. The geophysics is now complete and 
has been reviewed with site reconnaissance underway to assess the target sites 
before final drill testing of the targets is undertaken. Drill testing is 
expected before mid-year. 
 
The negotiation of the Tiris Shareholders Agreement, which covers the 10% 
Government interest in the Project, has been drafted and is currently under 
negotiation with the Government. Finalisation of this agreement is required for 
the Mining Lease application and is expected to be completed in May 2017. 
 
Other areas that will be commenced following the submission of the Mining Lease 
Application include; 
 
  * Mining Study 
  * Detailed Engineering included package cost estimates 
  * Infrastructure Study 
 
These areas are expected to be completed before calendar year end. 
 
Aura continues to target the end of 2017 for the completion of the majority of 
the Tiris DFS; however, it envisages some elements of the Tiris DFS will still 
be outstanding at this point.  As such, the full DFS is likely to be completed 
early in 2018. This slight delay is not expected to impact project 
implementation and financing, as a number of parallel activities are planned to 
be conducted near the end of the Tiris DFS. 
 
For further information contact: 
 
Aura Energy Limited                   Telephone: [phone] 
Peter Reeve (Executive Chairman and   Email: [e-mail] 
CEO) 
 
WH Ireland Limited                    Telephone: [phone] 
Adrian Hadden 
Katy Mitchell 
James Bavister 
 
Yellow Jersey PR Limited              Telephone: 
Felicity Winkles                      [phone] 
Joe Burgess                           [phone] 
 
 
 
END 
 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 26, 2017 02:29 ET (06:29 GMT)