Toro Energy Limited (ASX: TOE) (‘the Company’ or ‘Toro’) is pleased to announce that it has completed a re-estimation of the Lake Maitland uranium (as U3O8) and vanadium (as V2O5) resources within a lower grade U3O8 resource envelope (see details below) to allow for the resources of Lake Maitland to be stated at a 100ppm U3O8 and V2O5 cut-off grade. This has allowed for an expansion of the stated resources of the Lake Maitland Deposit (see below) and because the stated resources are now aligned with those of the other Wiluna deposits, Centipede-Millipede and Lake Way, it has allowed for an expansion of Toro’s stated resources for its entire 100% owned Wiluna Uranium Project.
Rapidly improving uranium market is driving significant positive effects on the potential economics of the Wiluna Uranium-Vanadium (U-V) Deposits.As a result Toro has re-estimated the U3O8 and V2O5 resources of the Lake Maitland Uranium Deposit within a lower U3O8 resource envelope to make it comparable to its other Wiluna deposits of Centipede-Millipede and Lake Way.As a result the Lake Maitland Uranium-Vanadium resource can now be stated at a 100ppm U3O8 and V2O5 cut-off grade in alignment with the other deposits of the Wiluna Uranium Project.This expands the Lake Maitland stated U3O8 resource by approximately 12% or 3.2Mlbs to 29.6Mlbs contained U3O8, with a reduction in average grade to 403ppm U3O8 (at a 100ppm U3O8 cut-off).The stated Lake Maitland V2O5 resource expands by approximately 74% or 13.4Mlbs to 31.4Mlbs contained V2O5, with a reduction in average grade to 285ppm V2O5 (at a 100ppm V2O5 cut-off).All of the Wiluna Uranium Project resources can now be stated at a 100ppm cut- off, resulting in an approximate 17% expansion of the U3O8 resources for the Project to 73.6Mlbs from the previous 62.7Mlbs, with a reduction in average grade to 381ppm U3O8.The stated Wiluna Uranium Project V2O5 resources expand by approximately 31% or 21Mlbs to 89.3Mlbs contained V2O5, with a reduction in average grade to 286ppm V2O5.
The new resource table is included in Appendix 1, all of the details for the re-estimation are in the JORC Table 1 in Appendix 2 and all drill hole details used in the re-estimation are listed in Appendix 3. The Competent Persons’ Statement can be found at the end of this ASX announcement.
Management Commentary
Commenting on the expanded resources at Lake Maitland, Toro’s Executive Chairman, Richard Homsany, said:
“Driven by strengthening uranium market conditions, we are very pleased to provide this significant expansion to the Lake Maitland and Wiluna resource bases, utilising a lower cut-off grade. From a benchmarking perspective, the lower cut-off grade permits better comparison with Toro’s industry peers, many of whom also state uranium resources at a 100ppm U3O8 cut-off.
Toro continues to advance the Wiluna Uranium Project and significantly strengthen further feasibility studies. We continue to assess what is the most financially feasible model of Wiluna adjacent to the regulatory conditions under which we operate. Toro is committed to develop the Wiluna Uranium Project to coincide with a strong uranium market to maximise the value of the Project and demonstrate its optionality for even further growth. The stated resource expansion and ongoing pilot plant work are an important foundation of the feasibility and potential increasing financial returns for the Project.
Toro will continue to provide further updates on development and value creation within its asset portfolio. Toro is strongly funded and well positioned to deliver on its stated milestones.”
The decision to reduce the cut-off grade at Lake Maitland and the other Wiluna deposits is in response to the recent positive uranium market conditions and their effect on the potential economics for Toro’s uranium resources.
This was especially the case at Lake Maitland, where recent re-optimisations of the potential mining pit based on the updated market conditions and potential new operating cost structure had placed pit boundaries with U3O8 cut-off grades at 109ppm U3O8, far lower than the 200ppm U3O8 cut-off grade of the stated resource (refer to ASX announcement of 22 October 2022). However, the reduction in the stated resource cut-off grade also allows for a better comparison of Toro’s total resource base to that of its uranium peers, many of whom also report stated resources at a 100ppm U3O8 cut-off.
The Lake Maitland resource had to be re-estimated within a lower grade U3O8 resource envelope in order to both align with the resource envelope criteria used for the other Wiluna U-V deposits (see below for further details) and to ensure accuracy when moving the stated resource cut-off to 100ppm U3O8, which is the same as the previous envelope cut-off. The new Lake Maitland U3O8 resource envelope cut-off is 70ppm U3O8, which is now similar to the other Wiluna Uranium Project deposits of Centipede-Millipede, which has a resource envelope cut-off of 70ppm U3O8, and Lake Way, which has a resource envelope cut-off of 80ppm U3O8.
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