Latest news with #Tumas
West Australian
10 hours ago
- Business
- West Australian
Uranium company says WA Government policy changes ‘warranted' as it produces ‘more accurate' project study
A company with a long-stalled uranium project in the northern Goldfields says changes to the State Government's policy towards the nuclear fuel are 'warranted' after a 'more accurate' low-level study highlighted the 'robust' economic potential of one of its deposits. West Perth-headquartered Toro Energy's Wiluna uranium-vanadium project has three deposits, including Lake Maitland, which is 105km south-east of the northern Goldfields town. The WA Labor Government has a policy banning new uranium mining projects in the State, and Toro's approvals for Wiluna, which were granted in 2016, lapsed in 2021 because 'substantial commencement' was deemed not to have taken place. The only uranium project in WA with currently valid State approval is Deep Yellow's Mulga Rock proposal 290km east-north-east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder — but this is second in line to the $750 million Tumas project in Namibia, where Deep Yellow recently delayed a financial investment decision as it waits for global prices to improve. However, Toro has kept its investment in Wiluna bubbling away, and on Wednesday released an updated scoping study for Lake Maitland which it said highlighted a 'robust' case for a standalone mining and processing operation. Toro executive chairman Richard Homsany said the new study used the recently completed, more accurate resource estimation and re-engineering of the proposed mining operations. 'The result is a more accurate study that clearly demonstrates just how robust the potential economics of the proposed project are, with an uplift of $75m or 9 per cent to a base case of $908m in pre-tax net present value, and a significant reduction in the payback period to a very swift 18 months from the commencement of mining and processing,' he said. 'As we have stated previously, the Lake Maitland deposit comprises a significant proportion of the Wiluna uranium project's resources, so we cannot understate just how transformational the standalone Lake Maitland operation is on the potential economics of the entire Wiluna uranium project. 'These latest estimates at Lake Maitland outline its potential to be brought into production and capacity to generate significant returns when regulatory settings align. 'Importantly, Lake Maitland's upside and quality continue to improve with each evaluation Toro undertakes, further strengthening the case that Wiluna is an asset of global significance. 'Policy changes at the WA State Government level to facilitate Toro's project development and unlock the considerable value in WA's uranium industry are warranted and, in the context of assisting many countries with nuclear power in their energy mix to achieve decarbonisation, are more than well overdue.' Toro on Wednesday said it believed its State approval remained valid despite not achieving substantial commencement, and it still had the option of applying under the Environmental Protection Act for an extension of time at a later time during the life of the approval. 'It is also envisaged that favourable results from the studies detailed in this announcement may also necessitate an amendment to the proposal the subject of each environmental approval received,' the company said. The company updated the resource at Lake Maitland last September by 12 per cent to 29.6 million pounds of contained triuranium octoxide — otherwise known as yellowcake — with a reduction in average grade to 403 parts per million triuranium octoxide at a 100ppm cut-off grade. The study released on Wednesday said Lake Maitland could produce 1.3 million pounds annually of yellowcake across a 16.3-year mine life — which amounted to a total of 22Mlb. It said the total cost of the project was $298.4m. The returns were based on a uranium price of US$85/lb — rival Canadian company Cameco estimates the spot price in April was US$67.73/lb. The study also included the stripping of vanadium from the uranium processing flow stream — Toro said it was liberated from the uranium ore mineral as a potassium uranium vanadate, along with the uranium, during leaching, to produce a low-value sodium hexavanadate as a by-product. Last September's mineral resource estimate said Lake Maitland had a vanadium resource of 50Mt at 285ppm vanadium oxide for 31.4Mlb at a 100ppm cut-off.
India.com
2 days ago
- Business
- India.com
More bad news for Pakistan supporter Turkey as this Indian company is set to..., the company is...
PM Modi's masterstroke to finish Turkey for supporting Pakistan, India exposes Erdogan by.... India vs Turkey: After India conducted Operation Sindoor against the terror targets of Pakistan and Turkey, led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan came into its support, the trend to boycott Turkey is gaining wider attention in India. As a result of the massive anti-Turkey feelings in the country, the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) of India is reportedly terminating its agreement with Turkish firm Tumas. For those unversed, the Indian government had earlier revoked security clearance for Turkish company Celebi. Here are all the developments you need to know about the possible recent action from India. As per a report by the Navbharat Times, the deal between the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) has seen no progress, and as a result, RVNL may seek partnerships with companies from countries like the UAE, Europe, South Korea, and Spain instead. About Rail Vikas Nigam Limited Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) is an Indian central Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) which works as the construction arm of the Ministry of Railways for project implementation and transportation infrastructure development. As per the report, RVNL is now preparing to end this deal due to the anti-Turkey sentiments in the country. Indians boycotting Turkey and Azerbaijan In the wake of recent geopolitical developments that have led to a boycotting trends against Turkey and Azerbaijan, there has been a sharp 42 per cent decline in visa applications to Turkey and Azerbaijan, as per a report by IANS news agency. As both countries publicly expressed support for Pakistan, Indian travellers responded swiftly. Within just 36 hours, the number of users exiting the visa application process midway surged by 60 per cent, according to data provided by Atlys, a visa processing platform. (With inputs from agencies)
Mint
3 days ago
- Business
- Mint
State-run Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd may end pact with Turkey's Tumas
India's Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) may end its year-old agreement with Turkish engineering firm Tumas after their partnership failed to make progress, two people aware of the matter said. The state-run company may now look for partners from other countries to replace Tumas. RVNL and Tumas India Pvt. Ltd had tied up in April 2024 to collaborate on infrastructure projects in India, particularly in public transport. The pact aimed at fostering partnership and cooperation in infrastructure projects, including railways, metros, and related areas. 'RVNL may put the memorandum of agreement in abeyance, and nix it completely later, as it had made no progress since being signed a year back. The company will evaluate whether such partnership itself is required now, as similar collaborations are being pursued with a few other key countries also in line with company's aggressive global expansion push," one of the two people cited above said on the condition of anonymity. Also read | Celebi case: State has plenary powers in protecting national security, says govt The move comes in the wake of India's strained relations with Turkey, which supported and armed Pakistan in its recent military conflict with India. Earlier this month, the government withdrew the security clearance of Turkish firm Çelebi's Indian airport services arm citing national security risks, halting its operations at nine airports, including Delhi and Mumbai. Later, a few travel and tour operators voluntarily removed Turkey from their tour packages. Queries emailed to the railway ministry and RVNL remained unanswered till press time. RVNL, a Navratna PSU, is the listed infrastructure and project implementation arm of Indian Railways while Tumas is an engineering, procurement and construction company. MoU insignificant now According to the two people cited above, the MoU itself has become insignificant for RVNL, as it is now pursuing public-private-partnership (PPP) collaborations with leading global firms from the UAE, Europe, South Korea, and Spain for metro, EPC, and solar projects. These collaborations are expected to help RVNL to strengthen and modernize its own construction abilities for Indian Railways projects and other opportunities for construction of public transport projects within the country. 'Infrastructure is not just about concrete and steel, it is about sovereignty and national resilience too," said Shailesh Agarwal, partner, risk consulting (infrastructure), EY India. "Projects, especially in border regions or involving communication systems must be safeguarded to minimize the risk of external interference. While we welcome global expertise, it must come from nations that respect India's security and stand by us in moments of crisis," Agarwal said. Also read | Turkey's Celebi to Delhi HC: Security clearance withdrawal has hurt business 'The recent conflict is a reminder that strategic autonomy begins with strategic choices including who we allow to build our future. Moreover, India today has the technical and engineering capability to execute these projects independently. From large-scale expressways to complex mountain tunnels, Indian firms have consistently delivered world-class infrastructure across challenging terrains. In fact, India firms are more competent when it comes to infrastructure execution. India's engineering sector has matured to meet global standards," he added. RVNL has spread its wings in India's infrastructure sector, expanding beyond its core railway expertise into highways, metro systems, and international markets. As a Navratna PSU, it has been instrumental in executing large-scale, high-impact projects such as the Dedicated Freight Corridor, Chardham Highway, the first-of-its-kind Pamban bridge in Rameshwaram and multiple metro rail systems. Also read | Dealing with 'delicate' subject: Govt to Delhi HC on Celebi petition The company is now aggressively expanding overseas, having successfully executed the UTF Harbour project in the Maldives and actively pursuing multi-billion-dollar infrastructure projects across West Asia, Africa, South America, and South Asia. It is bidding for ₹400 billion worth of projects and expanding into new infrastructure segments, including build-operate-transfer projects.
News.com.au
22-04-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Uranium price rebound is overdue, and these African projects are getting ready
Uranium spot prices have remained stubbornly low this year, with one developer pausing FID due to what it calls a "broken" market But market experts say supply and demand imbalances will continue to grow, forcing utilities to accept higher prices These African players are well placed for a market rebound Uranium stocks are suffering from negativity linked to a slide in spot prices, which have fallen from decade long highs of US$107/lb to ~US$64/lb between early 2024 and today. That has led some large players to pause new developments and delay FIDs, the latest and most notable the John Borshoff-led Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL). Borshoff, an industry veteran who previously led the construction of Paladin Energy's (ASX:PDN) Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia, this month again delayed FID on his new firm's Tumas project in the same south-west African nation. Tumas is expected to cost US$474 million to bring to life and run at an operating cost of US$35.02/lb U3O8, running at a post-tax NPV of US$577m ($912m) and IRR of 19% at a price of US$82.50/lb. But with spot prices trading at a discount, Borshoff says the uranium market is "essentially broken". "'We are at an extraordinary stage in the uranium supply sector. We have a situation where the long-term uranium market is essentially broken," he said. "This is due to more than a decade of sector inactivity, persistently depressed uranium prices, and utility offtake contracting practices which are yet to support the development of greenfields uranium production. "Although the Tumas Project is economic at current long-term uranium prices, these prices do not reflect or support the enormous amount of production that needs to be brought online to meet expected demand." Borshoff thinks demand from decarbonisation and increased energy requirements from sectors such as data centres is 'undeniable'. There are other market watchers who think the recent lull in uranium pricing will only serve to deliver higher prices down the line. Adam Rozencwajg of US fund managers Goehring and Rozencwajg still counts uranium among the fund's four key pillars, alongside crude, US gas and gold. He says nuclear power is "by far the most efficient" form of energy. "I think the long-term story for nuclear power is amazing. I think you're starting to see people wake up to that, and you're starting to see a massive, massive swing back towards nuclear, both in the West and certainly in China," he said. "There's just simply not been enough new mine development. " I think this has a lot of legs to it because it's such an efficient source of energy. And the tech companies are now waking up to it, too." African uranium opportunities When markets do return, it could be operations in Africa that move first. While Canada's Athabasca Basin holds the world's largest and highest grade deposits, when it comes to uranium mining – and especially speed to market – grade is not always king. African hosts lower grade resources that are close to surface and comparatively cheap and simple to process. And those jurisdictions which play host to its uranium riches tend to be among the most open to new developments. One of those in the potential pipeline is Aura Energy's (ASX:AEE) Tiris project in Mauritania. Remote and sparsely populated but home to a handful of large gold and iron ore operations, the initially 2Mlb per annum Tiris would be the first yellowcake producer in the north-west African jurisdiction. But MD Andrew Grove said support from the Mauritania Government had been strong. "We're getting very, very good support from the ministries and you can actually execute on a timely basis," he said. "You can't build a uranium mine in Western Australia. Australia's got very, very significant, probably the biggest resources of uranium in the world and the political environment is not supportive of any development. "That goes a little bit beyond uranium as well. We like Africa because it's underexplored and you can find good deposits and secondly, you can actually execute on those. You can get your licences and build." Tiris will come with a capital cost of US$230m and all in sustaining cost of US$35.7/lb, generating an NPV of US$499m and IRR of 39% after tax with a payback period of just 2.25 years at a price of US$80/lb. "It stands by itself in current pricing. So we're comfortable to keep progressing on that for our project," Grove said. " It takes time to build mines and find deposits and put mines in production and I think the whole supply-demand picture based on nuclear power means that we do need more mines and more production coming on board." The worm will turn If all goes to plan Aura – which could have 50-60% of its funding costs covered by a Western sovereign development bank – will be in production by 2027. Grove says in that time, uranium could correct hard. While contract pricing remains around US$80/lb and reflects over 85% of total uranium sales, the spot market is more visible and tends to dominate equity investor sentiment. But when that sentiment turns it can move quickly, as occurred when prices hit all time highs in 2007 and again from 2021-2023 with the arrival of the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust. "What I also think we're seeing is, given the turbulence we're coming through with Trump's tariffs, the utilities haven't been into the market much at all this year," Grove said. "They've either been worried about tariffs – (although) obviously uranium was excluded from the tariffs under Trump's policy – so they really haven't been in the market. "They can afford to keep out of the market a little bit because ... it's a long-term process for the utilities, by the time they buy uranium oxide with yellowcake, it takes circa 18 months to enrich it and make it into fuel pellets to go into the power station. So they've always got a bit of inventory on their books. " As a lot of the commentators will say, it's going to correct (and) it is going to correct hard. The timing of that I don't know – soon, I hope." One group clearly betting on that eventual outcome is the US uranium fund Sachem Cove. Mike Alkin-led Sachem Cove built large positions across the uranium developer landscape when prices were recovering from post-Fukushima lows of US$18/lb close to a decade ago. They recently emerged as a major backer of Aura, taking $6.5m of a $9m placement launched in December last year before buying another ~17m shares on market to take their stake in the ASX junior to 6.97%. That's called the smart money. "They've put a lot of confidence in our ability to fund and execute this project," Grove said. "While it's a new jurisdiction, they like the metrics of the Tiris project, being very shallow mineralisation, very low mining risk, low costs at US$36 a pound, good economic metrics. "They're comfortable enough to invest quite a significant amount of money into our shares to support us on the process. It's very pleasing that they've got such a strong positive view towards us." Uranium revival Fellow African uranium explorer Elevate Uranium (ASX:EL8) has a similarly shallow resource at its Koppies project in Namibia. It is led by Murray Hill, who has previously made the bold call that uranium prices could sky-rocket to US$150/lb, around all time highs seen in the 2007 bull run. "I think there will just be some event that someone realises there's not enough uranium around to satisfy demand and uranium prices should go off a bit," he recently told Stockhead. Whether or not that happens this year is up in the air, especially with uncertainty around the US economy, and the eventual lay of the land in relation to Donald Trump's tariff policies. But Hill believes uranium will be in a "fantastic spot" in five years' time, as data centres begin to consume more and more energy "I mean someone said the other day that a simple Google search with AI consumes eight times the energy as a Google search without AI. Now where is that energy going to come from?" Hill quipped. While he won't go as far as Borshoff's claim that the uranium market is 'broken', Hill said utilities were still behaving in the market as if the surplus seen in the post-Fukushima years, characterised by strong Kazakh output into a market sapped of Japan's reactor demand, was still in place. One problem is the divergence between the spot market and the opaque contracting market, where prices of US$80/lb remain around decade highs, indicating that when they do need to enter the market fuel buyers are willing to stump up a decent amount for supplies. Similar to Aura, Elevate has the benefit of hosting the vast bulk of its Koppies resources close to surface. EL8 is taking the opportunity to enhance its resource base ahead of the construction this year of a demonstration plant, which will be built in Perth and freighted overseas to Namibia to test its patented U-pgrade process. The technology will be used to process at least 60t of Koppies ore. Bench-scale test work on ore from the Marenica project also in Namibia has shown the potential to reject 98% of the mass from leaching and concentrate low grade uranium ores by a factor of 50. Koppies contains 66.1Mlb U3O8 at a grade of 190ppm, with 78% in the indicated category. But drilling is ongoing to define a resource at Namib IV, around 20km from the southern portion of Koppies. Hill told Stockhead the developer was ensuring it was able to deliver on the U-pgrade demonstration plant after raising $25m in a placement last year, backed by investors including the pro-uranium Australian insto Paradice Investment Management, which holds a ~10% stake.
