THE owners of the Honeymoon uranium mine in South Australia have given approval for the development to proceed. In a statement issued in Toronto, Uranium One said its board of directors had approved the mine's go ahead after a detailed feasibility study. It said it hoped to commission the mine in 2008.Uranium One has already been granted a mining licence by the South Australian Government but must now wait on final environmental approval.
Uranium One said the feasibility study had shown an estimated resource of 1.2 million tonnes of ore and put capital development costs at $US35.9 million ($47 million). "In light of the results of the feasibility study, Uranium One's board of directors has approved the development of the Honeymoon Project," the statement said.
Uranium One chief executive Neal Froneman said the feasibility study confirmed that the Honeymoon project was both technically viable and financially robust. "Today's announcement follows closely on feasibility studies completed for our Dominion Uranium Project (in South Africa) in late July and for the Modder East Gold Project in early August," Mr Froneman said.
"With the feasibility studies behind us, we are now moving towards uranium production, first in South Africa at Dominion in the first quarter of 2007 and then at Honeymoon, where we look forward to commissioning Australia's fourth uranium mine in 2008."