Rising global uranium prices have prompted mining company Marmota Limited to revisit its Junction Dam project west of Broken Hill.
The company is continuing to advance its Aurora Tank gold project in the Gawler Craton region in the northwest of South Australia and also holds copper interests on the state’s Yorke Peninsula.
The strategic review of Marmota’s uranium asset is somewhat of a return to its roots for the Adelaide-based company that began as a uranium explorer.
The Junction Dam site is positioned approximately 50 kilometres west of Broken Hill and 15 kilometres from the Honeymoon uranium mine and tenement.
Honeymoon is one of just four permitted uranium mines in Australia but was mothballed in 2013 because it had become too costly to run.
Honeymoon’s new owner Boss Resources Limited announced in January 2020 that it had developed technology to lower operating costs and was looking to commence production at Honeymoon within a year if prices improved.
This year the world uranium price has risen 35 per cent from US$24.90 (A$35) per pound on January 1 to $33.70 (A$47) on June 1.
Marmota owns 100 per cent of the uranium rights at Junction Dam but has not been active on uranium since 2014, at which point it had spent A$8 million on uranium exploration.
Exploration results at Junction Dam highlight an Inferred resource of 5.4 million pounds with potential to increase the size of the resource with further drilling.
In an announcement on 11 June 2020, Marmota said that recently, uranium prices have started rising significantly for the first time in many years and that sentiment in the uranium sector has significantly improved and continues to do so.
It said the Marmota Board had commenced a strategic review of its uranium assets in a bid to add value to shareholders.
Marmota Chairman, Dr Colin Rose, commented: “Prompted by the increasing uranium price and market interest, Marmota has for the first time in more than five years started looking again at our uranium assets, which is after all how the company originally started. As we delve into the work of the past, I am finding it to be both exciting and rewarding.”
“The purpose, of course, is to unleash the value and potential of the uranium assets for the benefit of the Company and its shareholders, and we are exploring a number of ways to do that.”