Energy Ventures unveils preliminary uranium metallurgical results from Aurora deposit

Energy Ventures (ASX: EVE) continues to progress the Aurora uranium deposit which is located in Oregon, U.S., and has today delivered to the market a positive set of initial metallurgical results.

Aurora displays strong potential due to hosting a near surface, flat lying zone of higher grade mineralisation amenable to open pit mining.

Importantly, scrubbing and wet screening tests have demonstrated that the Aurora mineralisation can be separated into size fractions with distinctly different physical and mineralisation characteristics.

The test results show:

- Separation of approximately 30% of the sample as a hard, coarse material containing around 10% of total uranium.

- Scrubbing attrition resulting in around 55% of total uranium mineralisation reporting to sizes less than 2 mm and around 35% reporting to sizes less than 149 μm.

- Separation of fine mineralisation into clay and non‐clay fractions.

The significance of these results is:

- Potential for efficient removal of internal waste through scrubbing and screening with minimal uranium losses. This would allow bulk mining of the resource and upgrading of mineralisation prior to leaching.

- Removal of hard, coarse waste and low‐grade material should significantly reduce crushing and grinding costs, as well as reducing capital costs due to lower volumes requiring grinding.

- Separation of clay and non‐clay mineralisation will allow different leach processes for each ore type, with potential for improved reagent consumption and recoveries compared to bulk leach results from previous work.


The next step

The results allow Energy Ventures to now move to evaluating the leaching characteristics and uranium recovery of the separate screen fractions.

Additional diamond drill core collected during 2011 has now been delivered to Hazen Research and preparation of a composite sample has been completed, with results expected in the June quarter of 2012 - after which a decision will be made to undertake more detailed flow sheet development and feasibility studies.

Also at Aurora, an internal Scoping Study has been undertaken and a Pre-Feasibility study is anticipated by mid-2012.


Aurora: just one of a portfolio of projects
Energy Ventures has five uranium exploration and development projects in the U.S, with Aurora in Oregon and the nearby Virgin Valley project in Nevada, along with three projects in Colorado known as Maybell, Skull Creek and Coyote Basin.

Where the story gets even more interesting for the company, is that all of the projects have significant historical exploration and current or historical resources defined, which highlights the prospectivity and potential of the land holdings.

Another plus is established mine permitting regimes, along with supporting infrastructure.

Originally published at: http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/24662/energy-ventures-unveils-preliminary-uranium-metallurgical-results-from-aurora-deposit-24662.html