That was the conclusion of Alligator Energy's just-released scoping study, which follows its acquisition of the project in 2020 and its most recent resource update to 18.1Mlb grading 720 parts per million

earlier this month.

 

The Greg Hall-led company is already significantly down the road for an in-situ recovery field trial at the Blackbush deposit to de-risk the technology, with a planned start later in the year.

 

The Samphire project scoping study dreamed bigger, producing around 10 million pounds of uranium oxide over 12 years at an average 1Mlbpa, from the site near the South Australian industrial hub of Whyalla.

 

Costs, always a bugbear for projects in the notoriously opaque world of uranium pricing, are expected to be around US$30/lb compared with a forecast commodity price of $65/lb, generating gross revenue of A$929 million.

 

Samphire has a post-tax net present value of $152 million and an internal rate of return of 29%, with a payback of about 3.5 years. 

 

It considered an option for trucking a dry resin for toll treatment in an existing ISR operation, avoiding the costs of precipitation, calcining and packaging operations, but concluded the economics were inferior.

 

Hall said study confirmed a low-impact, small footprint operation with low costs, in line with other ISR operations despite the hypersaline groundwater at Blackbush. 

 

It will ship its yellowcake out of Port Adelaide.

 

Alligator said its planned trial would de-risk the development and inform a full feasibility study.

 

The construction period is 18 months, meaning the earliest expected production is in 2027.

 

Alligator had around $23 million at the start of the quarter to fund work at Samphire, Nabarlek North in the Northern Territory, and its and Piedmont nickel-cobalt project in Italy.

 

It has traded at 3.4-11.5c over the past year, and its shares were off 3% today to 3.5c, capitalising it at $115 million.