ENERGY MINERALS

New uranium cycle kicking off: Boss

BOSS Energy managing director Duncan Craib says the company is well-positioned to take advantage of improving uranium market fundamentals.

 Boss Energy's Honeymoon uranium project in South Australia

Boss Energy's Honeymoon uranium project in South Australia

Craib told the Resources Rising Stars Summer Series that current dynamics in the uranium market were "fascinating".

"Investor sentiment is front-running an expected rise in price," he said.

Shares in Boss have roughly doubled since the start of November.

Craib says the uranium market is tight and macro conditions are improving, just as the company is looking to restart the Honeymoon uranium mine in South Australia.

"It's shaping up to be another new cycle," he said.

While the uranium spot price is hovering around US$30 per pound, contract prices are in the "high $30s".

Honeymoon's all-in costs are currently estimated at $32/lb, but an enhanced feasibility study is due next quarter which is aiming to lower costs.

"Arguably, we're cashflow positive at the moment," Craib said.

The enhanced study is aiming to reduce costs to $20/lb or lower as well as lift output to 2.45 million pounds of uranium oxide per annum by removing the existing solvent extraction columns and replacing them with new NIMCIX columns.

Honeymoon has estimated capital costs of $63.2 million, which the company says is one of the lowest funding requirements of any pre-production uranium project globally.

Last week, Boss announced it had started discussions with global lenders.

The company is also advancing offtake talks with a view to have debt funding in place by the time it finalises sales contracts.

Boss is also aiming to boost the Honeymoon resource of 71.67Mlb.

The company said today a review of the historical data base had been completed, which showed hits grading more than 3000 parts per million uranium oxide outside the resource.

The enhanced feasibility study is focused on exploiting only about half of the resource, though Honeymoon is permitted to 3.3Mlbpa.

Shares in Boss last traded at A12c, valuing the company at $220 million. Canaccord Genuity names the company as one of its top uranium picks and has a speculative buy rating and 13c price target.

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