Toronto, Ontario and Nucla, Colorado, Jan. 23, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Western Uranium & Vanadium is pleased to announce that it has acquired property in the State of Utah to build a state-of-the-art mineral processing plant. Site and Facility design, as well as permitting, has begun. The Facility will be designed and constructed to recover uranium, vanadium and cobalt from ore mined both from mines owned by Western and ore produced by other miners. Selecting and acquiring the processing site has taken over one year, as the site requires road, power and water infrastructure. The site was also selected based on the support of local municipal and county officials.
The Facility will utilize the latest processing technology, including Western’s patented Kinetic Separation process. These technology advancements will result in lower capital and processing costs. Mine development and ore production have already commenced at Western’s Sunday Mine Complex. That ore will provide feed material to the Facility.
At the request of a number of individuals and entities, the Facility will be designed to recover cobalt, a metal essential in battery technology and electric vehicles. Within the State of Utah, there are numerous occurrences of cobalt which may be economical to mine, if a processing facility were available. Construction of the cobalt circuit at the Facility will be dependent on the availability of feed material.
Western is confident that the uranium market is in the early stages of a sustained upswing. Supply and demand are in balance at present, due to historical inventory, but demand is projected to far exceed available supply in the next several years. New projects will require capital, equipment and people. Capital for good projects appears to be available. Western is committed to pursuing minimally dilutive financing options for the Facility in order to maintain its tight share structure. The ready supply of mining and processing equipment, as well as the workforce needed, may be the larger challenge to meet future demand. The Company will continue to be proactive as it has been in the reopening of the Sunday Mine Complex.
The vanadium market is also poised for growth as vanadium redox flow batteries are increasingly deployed as stationary energy storage solutions. Vanadium prices are projected to increase, as new sources of supply are needed.
George Glasier, President and CEO of Western stated: “This is one of the most significant events in the history of our Company. The processing facility, when completed, will provide Western with uranium and vanadium to sell into improving markets and thus result in substantial cash flow from operations.”