Mega Uranium receives Lake Maitland mining lease
2009-10-19 09:08 ET - News Release
Mr. Stewart Taylor reports
MEGA URANIUM LTD.: MINING LEASE GRANTED FOR THE LAKE MAITLAND PROJECT, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Western Australia Department of Mines and Petroleum has granted Mega Uranium Ltd.'s subsidiary, Redport Exploration Pty. Ltd., a mining lease (ML) for its Lake Maitland uranium project. The ML is the first mining lease to be granted for a uranium project in Western Australia since the newly elected state government announced in November, 2008, that it had removed the ban on uranium mine development in Western Australia.
The granting of the ML is a major step in the permitting process for the Lake Maitland project, which is now at the definitive feasibility study stage and on schedule to commence uranium production in early 2012. With the ML now in place, Mega will increase its development and testwork activities on the site, including trenching, bulk sampling for metallurgical studies, water studies and other project development work. The results of this work will be incorporated in the definitive feasibility study, which is scheduled for completion by end of June, 2010, and the environmental review and management program, which is scheduled for submission by end September, 2010.
The calcrete-style Lake Maitland deposit is located close to infrastructure in the Eastern Goldfields region of central Western Australia, 108 kilometres southeast of Wiluna. At a cut-off of 100 parts per million U3O8, it contains an NI 43-101-compliant indicated resource of 28.7 million tonnes grading 376 parts per million U3O8 (23.8 million pounds U3O8) and an inferred resource of 3.6 million tonnes grading 274 parts per million U3O8 (2.2 million pounds U3O8). The deposit is conducive to simple, low cost, open pit mining as it occurs in the form of a single, coherent, horizontal layer, one to three metres thick (average 1.7 metres), lying only one to two metres from surface. Due to the soft nature of the ore and overburden, drilling and blasting will not be required. Metallurgical testwork to date indicates satisfactory uranium recoveries of greater than 90 per cent using atmospheric alkaline leaching.
Under agreements signed in June, 2009, the Japan Australia Uranium Resources Development Company Ltd. (JAURD), through its subsidiary JAURD International Lake Maitland Project Pty. Ltd., and ITOCHU Corporation, through its subsidiary ITOCHU Minerals and Energy of Australia Pty. Ltd., can acquire a total 35-per-cent interest in the Lake Maitland resource through staged payments totalling $49-million (U.S.). For further details refer to Mega's news releases in Stockwatch Feb. 27, 2009, and June 18, 2009.
Stewart Taylor, Mega's president and qualified person under NI 43-101, is responsible for this news release and has verified the contents disclosed.
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